Open Letter to CS Monitor – Tea Party Coverage

Please stop referring to the Tea Party as “grassroots” or “populist”. The Tea Party exploits populist sentiments – to a degree – and is otherwise the plaything of very wealthy and powerful conservative men. Writing like this piece by Patrick Johnson at the otherwise excellent CS Monitor is simply negligent: But the tea party phenomenon [...]

Exposing Tort Reform as a Sham

It sounds reasonable: “People are suing for crazy-pants reasons!  Its out of control and we all pay for it!”.  Except its all bullshit. Pajiba is more of a place for excellent movie reviews than politics, but when they do dive in damned if they don’t get it perfect.  On Tort Reform: Tort reform is a [...]

Tea Party vs Abortion – The New Fight

The exceptions for the health of the mother, rape, and incest are under attack.  As the anti-abortion movement exposes its true face – a theocratic desire to control women’s reproductive options in all circumstances – they are also removing all pretense at compromise.  The newly invigorated anti-abortion movement is going to oppose contraceptions.  They are [...]

Egypt’s Potential Liberty – Revolution

Egypt’s revolution is under way.  Reports of police officers removing their uniforms and joining the protesters fills me with hope.  My own country’s interest in Egypt and horrifying human rights record when it comes to respecting foreign powers fills me with dread.  The likelihood of their success depends upon a number of factors.  Outside influence [...]

The New Republican Rhetoric and Bachmann

Buzzfeed has a collection of the best (craziest) Michele Bachmann quotes.  So a friend – understandably – posts this on Facebook wondering how someone this stupid is in office. Stupidity isn’t at play here, malicious intent is.  Michele is lying to push her agenda forward.  One might reasonably presume she is making effective use of [...]

Thoughts On Tunisia

There’s a lot to process.  In seeing fellow humans push back against tyranny and succeed – even if only for a moment – you are filled with rush of happiness and contentment.  Upon looking closer – other observations present themselves. The LA Times has a pretty good run down of the run up to revolution.  [...]

First They Came for the Muslims

And then they stopped, because we said ENOUGH. You come for the Muslims you come for all of us and we will not stand silently by and just let you: Rep. Peter King (R-NY), the new chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, has promised to launch a series of investigations of Muslim Americans beginning in [...]

Its 2011, No Health Care for You

I’ve been reflecting on how very central health care is to the most basic ethics and identity of a nation.  Why its 2011 and we still have to worry about health insurance is beyond me, save for having truly evil, backwards people leading this country. How does anyone who views access to health care as [...]

Fear Leads to Violence

You don’t have to be Yoda to understand that fear leads to hate and ultimately to violence.  This post by Amanda Marcotte over at Pandagon is worth reading in its entirety: I do think there’s value in talking about the use of inciting language, like Sarah Palin is fond of doing, but I have to [...]

Half the US Population Has Pre-Existing Conditions

As the Health Care debate heats up again, keep this startling statistic in mind: 1 in 2 Americans under 65 have pre-existing conditions. Any protections afforded by the recent health care act will be targeted by Republicans.  Keep in mind they are targeting fully half of America.

Obama to Get Even Cozier With Corporations

Via Digby the incredibly disheartening news that all signs point to Obama  pushing further towards the right as he approaches 2012: the White House will be strongly focused on better relationships with business over the next two years to ease the community’s fears about regulations. He’s off to a great start, tapping model corporate citizen [...]

Gov Chris Christie’s Real Impact

People like Chris Wallace damage whatever credibility they have left when they shill for the likes of Chris Christie: He loves bullying state and union workers around during town halls while canceling a major tunnel project that would have meant many jobs for NJ. The Teachers Union is in line this time for his authoritarian [...]

Yahoo on Ricky Gervais: Oh No ATHEISTS!

Quick Hit, Tara Ariano’s end to her write up of Ricky Gervais hosting the Golden Globes ended with this: But, being Ricky Gervais, he seemingly couldn’t stop himself putting a button on his performance that would practically guarantee that he’ll never be invited back: “And thanks to God for making me an atheist.” Good call [...]

The Attack on Giffords Was NOT Senseless

To be clear, the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her staff was not senseless* nor unspeakable. We MUST speak about it. It was not meaningless. It was the act of yet another crazed and violent far right conservative – and targeted a conservative Democrat.  That is the political atmosphere we live in, and if [...]

Dear Less Famous Feminists: Language Miss!

Harriet J has a largely brilliant post over at RH Reality Check.  In it she makes a passionate plea for famous feminists to stand up to Naomi Wolf’s execrable defense of Julian Assange.  (Before we get started, I want to make clear that there is a difference between believing the charges against Julian are politically [...]