Posts Tagged: Senate

Corruption / Elections 2010 / Politicking — No Comments
29
Jan 10

Saving our Democracy by being less Democratic?

Every now and then, something Ron Paul says appeals to me.  I’ll see your Tenth Amendment argument and raise you the 17th (Tony Blankley at HuffPo divined from a speech at CPAC in 2009):

As an early 1960s vintage member of the then-new conservative movement, I remember us focusing on the 10th amendment during the 1964 Goldwater campaign. It has been a staple of conservative thought, and the continued dormancy of 10th amendment enforcement has been one of the failures of our now half-century-old movement.  Read more...

Government / Politicking — No Comments
22
Dec 09

Parker Griffith Could Still Lose

The chattering classes will be clucking this afternoon about Alabama Representative Parker Griffith’s defection to the Republican Party.  While newsworthy, this is nothing surprising.

For starters, given the economy as well as a host of other factors, Democrats face an uphill challenge in 2010, with the consensus being the loss some of seats in the House and Senate.   Retirements, party switches, and the like are regular occurrences at this point of the cycle.  Furthermore, Griffith is a Freshman, and as such is much more susceptible to a fickle electorate (note that he won in 2008 in an uncontested race, and substantially outspent his rival).  You’ll also note that Obama lost AL-5 to McCain by 23%, and that Griffith beat his Republican rival Wayne Parker (name recognition/confusion much?) by a mere 3.6%, with the seat being previously held by a Democrat (data via CQ).  Read more...

Conspiracies / Corruption / Government / Politicking / Terror / War — No Comments
23
Sep 09

Grand Unifying Conspiracy Theory

It appears that the entirety of the blogosphere  is staying away from Sibel Edmonds explosive interview in Pat Buchanan’s American Conservative, of all places.   This is certainly understandable, given the treasonous accusations she has made.   From the article, via MeFi:

Sibel Edmonds has a story to tell. She went to work as a Turkish and Farsi translator for the FBI five days after 9/11. Part of her job was to translate and transcribe recordings of conversations between suspected Turkish intelligence agents and their American contacts. She was fired from the FBI in April 2002 after she raised concerns that one of the translators in her section was a member of a Turkish organization that was under investigation for bribing senior government officials and members of Congress, drug trafficking, illegal weapons sales, money laundering, and nuclear proliferation. She appealed her termination, but was more alarmed that no effort was being made to address the corruption that she had been monitoring.  Read more...

Daily Links — No Comments
27
Aug 09

Daily Links for August 26th through August 27th

All excerpts are quoted from the respective link(s).

  • Mike Enzi, Gang Of Six Republican, Admits He’s Simply Blocking Health Care Reform – Mike Enzi, one of three Republicans ostensibly negotiating health care reform as part of the Senate's "Gang of Six," told a Wyoming town hall crowd that he had no plans to compromise with Democrats and was merely trying to extract concessions.

    "It's not where I get them to compromise, it's what I get them to leave out," Enzi said Monday, according to the Billings Gazette.

    •  Read more...

Daily Links — No Comments
12
Jun 09

Daily Links for June 12th

Daily Links — No Comments
6
May 09

Daily Links for May 5th through May 6th

  • Economist’s View: The Social Security Obsession – Remember that the "Beltway obsession with Social Security reflects ideology and fashion, not the real problems facing America." They may think that they can wait until health care reform is completed before turning to this issue, but if they continue to have these meetings and push this agenda, there's a good chance Social Security will become a bargaining chip during the health care debate. However, trading Social Security against health care is not an outcome I'd like to see. There is no pressing need to modify the Social Security program, fairly minor changes will solve whatever problems the program has, and there are many other possible tradeoffs within the budget that could fund a new health care system (on both the revenue and spending sides). But I'm sure conservatives would love the chance to pit these two porgrams against each other as part of the health care reform process.
Daily Links — No Comments
4
May 09

Daily Links for May 4th

  • New Statesman – Caught in the net – The politics of the counterculture had long been eclipsed, but its central idea of bringing about direct communication between peers outside of the reach of authority survived intact. In the course of just a few years at the beginning of this century, as broadband connections became widespread and opened up a permanent window on the web, many of us took to zoning out at work or disappearing into the spare room at home to spend hours watching or communicating with one another online. No longer content with passively absorbing information on the internet, we began to set up our own castles on its turf.
Daily Links — No Comments
30
Apr 09

Daily Links for April 29th

  • Visualizing Specter’s Switch — Sunlight Foundation Blog – With Sen. Arlen Specter grabbing the headlines yesterday with his party switch, here are two cool interactive visualizations that show the ‘topography’ behind the senator’s dramatic move.
  • Transparency: America’s Problem Drugs | GOOD – The war on drugs keeps law enforcement busy—13 percent of all arrests made in 2007 were drug related—but the kinds of battles police are fighting vary widely across the country, from meth labs in California to cocaine dealers in Florida. Our latest Transparency is a look at what drugs local law enforcement officials said were posing the greatest dangers to their communities, when asked by the Department of Justice.
Government / Politicking — No Comments
29
Nov 08

If I were the left’s Karl Rove…

…or at least Daniel Axelrod, I would look at this list (as well as prior and future installments) and figure out who needs to be flipped, either entirely,  or case-by-case to the Democratic-side.  The electorate is no longer interested in RINOs – anticipate the far-right to run primary challenges on the grounds of ideological purity, and the mainstream and left to get rid of the GOP-moderates in exchange for more and better Democrats.

Daily Links — No Comments
29
Oct 08

Daily Links for October 28th

  • Talking Points Memo | The Palin Effect – Palin was a surprising pick– virtually unknown outside Alaska (including, as it turned out, by the McCain campaign itself)– and she lacked experience (a key talking point for McCain). But her effect was supposed to be three fold– a woman and feminist for life, she'd pick up disgruntled Hillary supporters, an avowed Christian, she'd consolidate and energize the religious right, and with her youth and self described Mavericky ways, she'd counter Obama's fresh enthusiasm.

    Two months later? Not so much. The Palin Effect exists– but it's not energizing the base. On the contrary. Of the 70 odd conservative politicians, pundits and newspapers that have turned from McCain to endorse Obama this fall, 38 of them have cited Palin as a significant contributor to the decision. Hover over for quotes, and click on the pictures for links. And enjoy.

    •  Read more...

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