Friday Republican roundup

What a nightmare this Conservative Political Action Conference has been. I can’t imagine how Republicans think this is going to play well with people who are genuinely struggling with actual problems. • From Mother Jones: John Bolton at CPAC: The Benefits of Nuking Chicago: “The fact is on foreign policy I don’t think President Obama thinks […]

News to scare your parents with

Is there some context that should make me less frightened by this news? The 25 bank failures in 2008 also depleted the [FDIC's] deposit insurance fund by $15.7 billion during the fourth quarter to $18.89 billion. The 25 banks that failed last year, before the worst hit — out of thousands in operation in the […]

John Cole on Republican denial

from a former Republican: One of the chief economic advisers to their then Presidential candidate repeatedly referred to those feeling the pain of the recession as a nation of whiners while suggesting it was all in their heads, and now, as it is blindingly obvious that we are in serious, serious trouble, the leading lights […]

The “liberal media” vs Obama’s budget

As one reporter observed after the briefing, “Did you notice all the questions about taxes came from reporters making over $250,000 a year, especially the TV guys?” Check out BREAKING: Press Corps Incredulous That Obama Budget Reflects Campaign Promises at fivethirtyeight.com. Silver points out how the press corps has soaked up every bit of Joe […]

A question for conservatives

I understand that conservatives view returning the highest tax brackets to Clinton-Reagan levels as “wealth redistribution.” What I don’t understand is why slashing taxes for the upper-class, which puts more burden on everyone else, isn’t also considered wealth redistribution; i.e. Obama proposes wealth redistribution, but Bush didn’t. I ask this question honestly, assuming there is […]

Keep on message – Feb 24, 2009

from the Omaha Reader Dave Heineman deserves some credit for approaching the incoming stimulus funding like an adult rather than resorting to the shallow grandstanding we’ve seen from other governors like Bobby Jindal. It’s completely within a person’s rights to politically oppose something, but good for Heineman for accepting what has happened and moving forward […]

Attention stalkers

You can now follow my twitter feed in the sidebar column. While I don’t mean to downplay the awesomeness of this, my Twitter updates are not what I was referring to when I alluded to my best idea ever.