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20 Jan 2010 11:03

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Politics: Newsweek columnist: Scott Brown, another guy with no new ideas

  • Brown offers nothing constructive, nothing coherent, nothing concrete, and no support for anything President Obama has done or plans to do. He’ll fit right in.
  • Newsweek columnist Daniel Gross • Regarding Massachusetts Senator-elect Scott Brown, who he feels has no firm fiscal policy, just like many other Republicans. Gross argues that it seems like the current agenda for many Republicans is something along the line of party pooper for any sort of economic recovery. He’s argued this before in Slate, referring to the party as the “Failure Caucus.” Ouch. He goes further: “In fact, it’s virtually impossible to find an elected Republican official who can speak intelligently and accurately about budget issues.” Painful. source

19 Jan 2010 22:54

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19 Jan 2010 20:27

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Politics: On media ethics in Haiti: Stop giving Anderson Cooper crap!

  • We need to make an important point here. (Note the graphic video.) Anderson Cooper saved a young boy’s life here. And this past weekend, Sanjay Gupta kept a hospital afloat. Other doctors and reporters are getting their hands dirty in helping out with one of the worst natural disasters in history. And yet, some media critics are giving them crap for daring to help. We need to clarify this to our readers here, as fellow journalists:
  • one Being a journalist does not instantly mean that you stop caring about other human beings.
  • two It’s easy to remain impartial when you’re not in a disaster zone like Cooper was.
  • three Life and death is not the point where one brings up an ethical fight. It’s unavoidable.
  • four CNN’s editors may be exploiting it, but we’d rather see reporters help out. source

19 Jan 2010 19:01

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Politics: Americans think Sarah Palin should avoid public office, talking

  • 71% want Palin to not run for the presidency source

17 Jan 2010 21:30

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Politics: Max Headroom: MLK reminds us how far our discourse has fallen


  • One way to think of it … Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a.k.a. the guy who ticks us off with his useless quips, claims the Massachusetts senate race is a “referendum” on health care. It might just be, but what we’d like to see is a referendum on stalling tactics like Mr. McConnell’s.

  • … and another way On the other side of the aisle, MSNBC’s Ed Schultz, who we’ve seen thus far as kind of a left-leaning screen chewer in the vein of a Fox News host, said that he’d “try to vote ten times” to keep Scott Brown from winning. Sorry, friends, but this isn’t cool, either. (Hat tip @jessehines)

  • Blast from the past For a little perspective on the state of talk show chatter, here’s a clip from Martin Luther King Jr.’s last interview with Meet the Press back in 1967. We’ve devolved far from this sort of televised debate. We’ve gone from this to crap like Ed Schultz’s blabbering. We’ve fallen far.

17 Jan 2010 10:36

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Politics: The Supreme Court’s blocking of Prop. 8 cameras: Unfair?

  • Everything about the Supreme Court’s decision to stay the broadcast (and the Proposition 8 camp’s request to black out the trial in the first place) betrays a deep ambivalence about the same humble American voter whose very rights the court purports to be defending.
  • Slate writer Dahlia Lithwick • Discussing the Supreme Court’s decision to ban cameras during the Proposition 8 gay marriage trial in California. Lithwick claims the trial itself is somewhat questionable, but the banning of cameras in the courtroom is beyond absurd and is completely disrespectful to the rights of the American public. She further explains: “As it explains in its order: ‘This case, too, involves issues subject to intense debate in our society’ and it ‘is therefore not a good one for a pilot program.’ So, um, we the people are only fit to watch low-profile, boring cases?” source

15 Jan 2010 01:29

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Politics: How did Scott Brown teeter towards the edge of an upset in Mass.?

Weeks ago, Scott Brown was seen as a non-entity in the country’s most liberal state. Now he has a realistic shot of winning Ted Kennedy’s old seat. WTF? source
 

13 Jan 2010 15:01

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Politics: Haiti earthquake: Pat Robertson is a douchenozzle

  • The CBN host with the most racist philosophies possible said that Haitians are getting punished by Satan for the slave revolt that liberated their country 200 years ago. Dude, do you just wait for bad things to happen to go crazy? source

12 Jan 2010 23:22

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Politics: Self-centered: Sarah Palin’s debut on Fox News tonight

  • This is analysis? Of who? Tonight’s debut of Sarah Palin as a Fox News commentator was a fail as a piece of commentary because the focus never really left the topic of Sarah Palin. We understand why Palin might want to use this opportunity to clear her throat, but if she really wants to be worthy of our time, she can’t spend fifteen minutes talking about herself. Who cares?

11 Jan 2010 21:21

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Politics: This SNL Sarah Palin sketch is a lot funnier in retrospect, guys

  • This clip somehow got funnier a year and a couple months later, especially in the context of the line from Tina Fey’s version of Sarah Palin: “If I’m not going to the White House I’m either running in four years or I’m going to be a white Oprah.” In the context of the Palin/Fox News announcement today, it’s even more striking. source