Unlikely Words » Politics

Good Example of Spite

aaron cohen — Fri, 14 May 2010 17:18:40 +0000

Via a reader email to Talking Points Memo: Regardless of which side of the political fence you're on, you have to admire this type of personal animosity:

My next-door neighbor is a life-long Democrat who has spent the last 20 years as a registered Republican. He switched his registration just so he could vote against Arlen in the GOP primaries. When Arlen switched to the Democrats, so did my neighbor. I have disliked many a politician but have never been tempted to switch parties to get another opportunity to vote against him an extra time.

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Get Some Balls

aaron cohen — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 19:15:12 +0000

It's come to this.

Via Andrew Sullivan

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Michele Bachmann and the Census

aaron cohen — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:23:57 +0000

If you remember this summer, one of the crazies leading the charge against this year's Census was Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. However, in the last couple months she's taken a backseat in the anti-Census after realizing that Minnesota is one of the states at risk of losing a seat in Congress after population shifts are calculated. And which Minnesota seat would be cut? Apparently, Bachmann's:

The really fun fact, as I've learned from Minnesota experts, is that Bachmann's district would likely be the first to go if the state lost a seat. The other seats are all fairly regular-shaped, logical districts built around identifiable regions of the state (Minneapolis, St. Paul, the Iron Range, and so on). Bachmann's district is made of what's left over after such a process, twisting and turning from a small strip of the Wisconsin border and curving deep into the middle of the state. As such, the obvious course of action if the state loses a seat is to split her district up among its neighbors.

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Govermental Dreams

aaron cohen — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:21:52 +0000

Emanuel Derman dreams:

I had a fantasy in which the Fed and the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) switched roles.

If a bank failed at 9 a.m. one morning and shut its doors, the TSA would announce that all banks henceforth begin their business day at 10 a.m.

And, if a terrorist managed to get on board a plane between Stockholm and Washington, the Fed would increase the number of flights between the cities.

Via Felix Salmon

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Predictable Idiocy

emdash — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 03:36:19 +0000

Photo by Flickr user caribbSo, because the most recent al-Qaeda dipshit tried to light a firecracker on a plane, we're not forbidden to get up or hold anything on our laps during the last hour of a flight:

“Among other things,” the statement on Air Canada’s Web site read, “during the final hour of flight customers must remain seated, will not be allowed to access carry-on baggage, or have personal belongings or other items on their laps.”

The suspect in the Friday attempt, identified as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, tried to ignite his incendiary device in the final hour of the flight while the plane was descending into Detroit.

We all recognize that this is beyond stupid, right? We're letting al-Qaeda write our flight security regulations by proxy. Whatever they do, we overreact: shoes, liquids, laps. At some point, will Americans get fed up and stop flying?

God Forbid We Follow The Science!

emdash — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:24:49 +0000

We just might have the stupidest legislature on Earth:

The Democrats’ health care bill would generally require insurers to provide preventive treatment recommended by the expert panel, the United States Preventive Services Task Force. But lawmakers in both parties made clear that they wanted doctors to decide when a mammogram is medically necessary and that insurers should be required to cover the cost if the procedure is needed.

“There’s much discussion about whether or not you should get a particular service at a particular age,” Ms. Mikulski said during the floor debate. “We don’t mandate that you get a service. We leave that up to a decision made with the woman and her doctor.”

Republicans, in Ms. Murkowski’s amendment and in a separate amendment by Mr. Vitter, specifically sought to set aside the task force recommendations on mammograms and to bar the federal government from relying on the findings. Mr. Vitter’s amendment was adopted without a vote on Wednesday night.

That's right. By law, we can't follow the guidelines of an independent, scientific, medical commission. God help us.

Terrorists Will Kidnap Your Daughter!

emdash — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:41:24 +0000

Photo by Flickr user ChuckHolton Rep. John Shadegg (R-Moron) makes the case against civilian trials for accused terrorists:

"I saw the mayor of New York said today, 'We're tough. We can do it.' Well, Mayor, how are you going to feel when it's your daughter that's kidnapped at school by a terrorist?" Shadegg said.

"How are you going to feel when it's some clerk -- some innocent clerk of the court -- whose daughter or son is kidnapped? Or the judge's wife? Or the jailer's little brother or little sister? This is political correctness run amok," he continued.

Isn't this actually an argument against ever trying any criminal anywhere in a court? If the very presence of an accused criminal in a city is a threat to its citizens, shouldn't we just do without trials and, like, shoot our criminals into space?

Or maybe it's only super evil terrorists who can, under armed guard in a courtroom, kidnap the mayor's daughter. Honest to God, the Republicans think Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is Magneto.

(I would like to note that I wrote this post before Ezra wrote his.)

Two Links from Two Weeks Ago

aaron cohen — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:54:08 +0000

Two links from two weeks ago that you may or may not have seen, but I had saved to share and not gotten around to it yet.

The Yes Men sent out a hoax press release from the US Chamber of Commerce saying they had changed their position on climate change. Obviously the media was interested in this so the Yes Men rented a room at the DC Press Club and gave a fake press conference. Then it gets really awesome when a representative of the Chamber shows up and shuts down the presser. And now, they're getting sued for it

Via TPM.

If you saw the profits made by the big banks last quarter and wondered how they were doing it, Philip Greenspun has an answer:

Because of the Collapse of 2008 financial reforms, the big investment banks are able to borrow money from the U.S. government at 0 percent interest. Then they can turn around and buy short-term bonds that pay 2 or 3 percent annual interest. Now they’re making 2 percent on whatever they borrowed. They can use leverage to increase this number, by pledging some of the bonds that they’ve already bought as collateral on additional bonds.

It's all so awesome, isn't it?

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2008 Election Look Back

aaron cohen — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:28:01 +0000

Last year, I spent about a month putting together this 2008 Election Round Up of reactions, articles, thoughts, videos, etc. It's fun looking back at it now and actually using it the way it was intended. It seems like a year was a long time ago and yet not that long ago. I'm not sure how many of the links are broken now, but take a look through it and pass it on.

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Oh, ProJo, You’re Such A Comedian

emdash — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:29:42 +0000

Ha! Ha! See, it's funny because government is bad:

Government agencies will be eyed as more than the sources of speeding tickets and income tax forms this week at a special job fair to be held on the campus of Bryant University.

Those stupid government agencies, always enforcing public safety laws collecting revenue for the purpose of funding public services. Losers.

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Wingnut Voltron Definition

aaron cohen — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:08:51 +0000

(I've had this post in "Drafts" since January when I had the idea to do a week of new words/theories/definitions, but who knows if that will ever happen, and now that Balloon Juice is building a dictionary, I figured I'd post it. Carry on.)

I heard this phrase the other day and traced the first usage back to Balloon Juice. I think it's perfect. I'd nominate it for phrase of the year, but it was from last year, so, well, we'll just have to enjoy it without the awards.

Wingnut Voltron, noun: The act when the right wing blogosphere comes together to form a powerful and passionate opposition to important things, such as scarves in a donut commercial. Derived from the childrens' cartoon Voltron.

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A Bigger House of Representatives?

emdash — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:11:31 +0000

This seems like a pretty good idea to me.

Photo by Flickr user cliff1066

The most populous district in America right now, according to the latest Census data, is Nevada’s 3rd District, where 960,000 people are represented in the House by just one member. All of Montana’s 958,000 people likewise have just one vote in the House. By contrast, 523,000 in Wyoming get the same voting power, as do the 527,000 in one of Rhode Island’s two districts and the 531,000 in the other.

That 400,000-person disparity between top and bottom has generated a federal court challenge that is set to be filed Thursday in Mississippi, charging that the system effectively disenfranchises people in certain states. The lawsuit asks the courts to order the House to fix the problem by increasing its size from 435 seats to at least 932, or perhaps as many as 1,761. That way, the plaintiffs argue, every state can have districts that are close to parity.

“When you look at the data, those are pretty wide disparities,” said Scott Scharpen, a former health care financial consultant from California who has organized the court challenge. “As an American looking at it objectively, how can we continue with a system where certain voters’ voting power is substantially smaller than others’?”

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Stimulus and the States

emdash — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:00:46 +0000

Photo by Flickr user Darren Hester

This is almost entirely wrong-headed: the point of stimulus aid to state and local governments isn't to save state and local government jobs. The point is to provide fiscal support so that states, which generally have to balance their budgets, don't make pro-cyclical spending/service cuts or have to enact tax increases during a recession.

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You Can Not Have A Reasonable Argument With Idiots

aaron cohen — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:25:25 +0000

Via Talking Points Memo, a poll from Public Policy Polling drilling down into the nonsense regarding whether President Obama is a naturalized citizen of the US.

According to the poll, 24% of the population do not believe Obama was born in the US. That's not a huge surprise, because that's about the % of the country that supported Bush until the end of his presidency (though, it's obviously not certain these are the same people). More of these people (10% to 7%) believe he was born in Indonesia, rather than Kenya, which is weird because as TPM notes, everyone knows that Obama was born in Kenya, or at least that's what they say.

Most telling, tough is the 10% of people who acknowledge Obama WAS born in Hawaii. 6% of them don't think Hawaii is part of the US and 4% aren't sure.

Reasonable people can disagree, sure, but these people aren't reasonable.

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Why Are We Boycotting Whole Foods?

emdash — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:07:40 +0000

Photo by Flickr user JOE M500

I'm honestly confused about why I'm not supposed to shop there. I understand that CEO John Mackey is kind of a libertarian goofball and that he's recently expressed opinions about health care reform that are consistent with his goofball libertarianism.

But: is Whole Foods, as a corporation, lobbying against health care reform? I haven't seen any reporting that this is happening. Are we honestly boycotting Whole Foods in an attempt to change John Mackey's mind? That seems like a pretty unlikely outcome, and a pretty staggeringly disproportional tactic.

Who cares what the guy says in the Wall Street Journal? And why should I base my grocery shopping on it?

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Happy One Year Anniversary To Tire Gauge As Political Prop

aaron cohen — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:02:31 +0000

Remember these? ###Possibly related posts:More Political Baseball Cards – Al Gore and George Bush Together Again Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin Will Arnett Says Arrested Development Movie This Year ### Possibly related posts:

I Didn’t Know Victoria Jackson Was Crazy

aaron cohen — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:07:43 +0000

This is as funny as she was on Saturday Night Live! It gets especially good in the comments.

Obama legally kills babies and now he can legally kill Grandmas!

Hitler did this. He killed the weak, the sick, the old, and babies and races/religions he didn’t like. Hitler also controlled the media. (Where’s the public debate between scientists on “Climate Change/Global Warming?”) Hitler had the VW bug invented as the state car. What will O’s nationalized car be? So… kill off the weak. That’s the plan. Tax the workers to death. Erase the middle class. Sounds like the evil governments we studied in high school long ago. The evil governments were : kings, oligarchies, facist, socialist, and communist. Now it’s called the Obama Administration. Sounds like candy or a rock band.

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Karl Rove vs James Carville, Wang Center Boston – 5/27/09

aaron cohen — Thu, 28 May 2009 04:58:59 +0000

Of the three 2009 Speaker Series: Live & Uncensored events, the one I had originally looked forward to most was tonight's showdown between James Carville and Karl Rove. According to Charlie Rose, the moderator, Rove and Carville are both known for "helping an underdog get elected President twice" and connected by Mary Matalin, who is linked to "the political side of Rove" and "the loving side of Carville." Whatever that means.

Considering the insanity from last night's event at Radio City Music Hall, my expectations were pretty high. Alas, something seemed off about the night from the very beginning (the orchestra was only 3/4 full at 8:00 when the evening was supposed to start, though it did eventually fill), and it never got completely on track. Frankly, Rove wasn't as despicable as he's often portrayed, Carville wasn't as spicy as he is when he's 'on', and Rose didn't care to control the conversation.

I was surprised at the amount of attention paid to Carville v. Rove Round 1 in NYC because for Coulter v. Maher I wasn't able to find anything ahead of the event. Last night in NYC was marred by protesters and hecklers and perhaps the excitement was too much for the 3 performers because, while the Boston crowd was well-behaved (surprising after our Maher/Coulter display), there weren't a lot of fireworks on stage. Of course, there was Carville's Ragin' Cajun huffing and puffing and Rove's know-it-all smugness. Even Rose got into it, pointing and bowing his body like a marionette, sometimes folding all the way over.

I'm losing steam, but I want to share the notables:

-The sound issues for the Speaker Series continued as Rose's introduction battled someone who had their mic turned on backstage and I was begging for a 30 Rock/Naked Gun moment of embarrassment. James Carville was impossible to understand for most of the night. Part of this was his accent, but when he moved the mic closer to his mouth, it was better.

-Bodily theatrics played a big part tonight: Already mentioned was Rose's puppet-like pantomimes. Carville mugged for the crowd, but also fidgeted constantly, adjusting his tie and socks, and scratching his armpit. At one point, Rove mimicked Carville's herky-jerky gesticulations for a good 20 seconds, much to the delight of the audience.

-Topics covered include: The Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor ("All I could say was 'sonofabitch'" - Carville, Rove thinks she'll be easily approved.), The Economy (Carville, in a point that he leaned on like a wooden leg, says it's a "breathtaking accomplishment" how much Obama has made us feel better about ourselves and the direction of the country, Rove thinks it's all Obama's fault.), Health Insurance, Does the Market work?, Foreign Policy ("More power to him, he's doing the right thing" and "America's popularity is different than is credibility" both by Rove.) Bush (Rove said they should have tackled immigration before trying to fix Social Security, Carville said they succeeded in Africa and had good ideas on immigration), Clinton, and best political lesson ("It's about addition, not subtraction" - Rove. "When I was younger, I overrated intelligence, but now I'd go with judgment" - Carville.)

-Favorite quotes/interactions:
"I don't want the cops busting my door down when I'm having sex." - Carville "I don't want to be the cop busting down the door while YOU'RE having sex." - Rove
"You don't interrupt James when he's talking." - Rove. "He doesn't whine." - Rose.
"Difference between Clinton and Bush, Clinton had 8 bad minutes, Bush had 8 bad years." - Carville
"James, your ignorance is appalling." - Rove

I'm glad I got to go if only to see how brilliant these guys usually are in short bursts on live TV. The three are whip-smart and fanatically prepared. Tonight, however, it didn't feel like any of the three were on. They also hadn't agreed on a format; Rove came for a debate, Carville came for a talk show. I think this has more to do with what each of them have been doing for the last 8 years, than either of their political or speaking skills.

I'm also extremely excited to see what the Speaker Series has in store for Boston in 2010. Hopefully more events of different formats (town hall with submitted questions, maybe?). It might also be interesting to see them approach books (Gladwell vs Lewis?!) or movies, and maybe in different settings. This might be a more ambitious path than they're looking to forge, so if that's the case, I'll happily accept several more politically-themed events next year, but let's maybe mix it up with less established politicians or pundits. If they won't sell as many tickets, the Speaker Series should consider utilizing some of the Wang's smaller properties.

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My Favorite Thing About Atrios

aaron cohen — Wed, 20 May 2009 20:40:14 +0000

Every couple weeks he's good for an anti-Rick Warren post - he's got Rick Warren, I've got sharks.

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Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

aaron cohen — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 20:44:32 +0000

It might be just me, but I really struggled through the first 125-odd pages of this book until Lincoln got elected (sorry for the spoiler. He dies at the end. Damn it, again!). Kearns has obviously written the book from the perspective that Lincoln always made the right decision, and thus didn't include any decisions he got wrong. That said, Lincoln sure seemed to make a hell of a lot of decisions correctly.

Bonus links:
Lincoln Memorials in NYC, 16 hour audiobook of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates and superpower Lincoln biopic coming in 2011 from Steven Spielberg, Tony Kushner, Liam Neeson, and Sally Field, with music by John Williams.

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