• Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    Hey, Buddy, Wanna Buy An Election?

    Outside groups are dumping wads of cash on “ad buys” in most states… guess somebody wants to buy some politicians, huh? An unprecedented influx of political cash — most of it from outside Illinois — is feeding an inescapable wave of television attack ads aimed at manipulating voters in the final weeks of high-stakes campaigns for U.S. Senate and governor. via Money rolls in, campaign ads roll on – chicagotribune.com.

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    The Truth Would Set Us Free If Only The Lies Weren’t So Irresistible

    The stupid people shall elect the leaders that gave them the tastiest Kool-Aid to drink, which allowed them to blame their problems on the Dems who’ve been unable to solve them, instead of on the cynical Repubs who caused the problems in the first place, then blocked every solution they could. Polls are useless, and we’re in deeper trouble if sane people don’t vote. Stop the insanity, VOTE! One of the biggest problems facing the Democrats going into this election is that they’re getting absolutely zero respect for everything they’ve done for the average American over the past two years.…

  • Politics, Schmolitics

    News & Opinion: The Ugly Truth (Tucson Weekly . 07-06-98)

    Lately I’ve been feeling bad for U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. This is perhaps the most successful female lawyer of all time, and yet all we ever hear about is that she’s too tall, too gawky, and just plain unattractive. What does that have to do with anything? Is it her choice to go through life unattractive and unattached? I don’t think so. I saw her interviewed once and she poignantly said that she really felt bad about never having had the opportunity to get married and have children, or for that matter, to even date all that much. Is…

  • Blogs Wot I Read - Politics, Schmolitics

    Tolkien Hated Hitler: What Would He Make Of Glenn Beck?

    What with all Chaplinesque moustache-porn videos going around, I do wonder what J.R.R. Tolkien would make of the current culture wars. He knew his way around a mythology, invented or real, so I wonder what he’d think of Beck’s reverse-engineering of the national mythos of the Founding Fathers? 10. He wasn’t nearly as fond of Nazis as they were of him. Tolkien’s academic writings on Old Norse and Germanic history, language and culture were extremely popular among the Nazi elite, who were obsessed with recreating ancient Germanic civilization. But Tolkien was disgusted by Hitler and the Nazi party, and made…

  • Politics, Schmolitics

    The Palin Theory Of How She Should Conduct Her Life: Hardly Working, Not Working Hard

    Flying high after flexing muscles in GOP primaries, Sarah Palins next stops: Iowa, cable TV – chicagotribune.com. Remember John Glenn? The former astronaut and senator drew huge crowds and intense attention here when he sought the Democratic nomination in 1984 — and got just 4 percent of the vote. “They were coming out to see John Glenn the astronaut, not John Glenn the Democrat running for president,” said veteran Republican strategist Eric Woolson. If she runs, Palin would start with strong appeal among the social and religious conservatives who play a crucial role in Iowa’s Republican politics. But that appeal…

  • Clan: McTiVo - Politics, Schmolitics

    Daily O’Donnell: I Dabbled Into Witchcraft

    We watched Real Time with Bill Maher last night and enjoyed this clip from the 90’s “Politically Incorrect” show Maher used to have. Turns out he and Christine O’Donnell go back a ways, and she’s always been a little… odd in her beliefs. And this is the person that Delaware conservatives want representing them? Seriously? Of course, no one was at their best in the era of big mall hair, but it’s really hard to imagine this person actually formulating policy as an actual adult. Via Daily Kos: DE-Sen: O’Donnell: “I dabbled into witchcraft”

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    The Faces Of The GOP: Statler and Waldorf In The Balcony Just Saying No (Again)

    Funny how a meme I saw mentioned in the comments thread at a liberal blog pops up on the Christian Science Monitor. When the Muppet fits… The GOP’s constant kneejerk rejection of economic ideas simply for the sake of Saying No has as much to do with our current malaise as anything being done wrong in the White House. The newly-minted fiscal conservatives on the Republican side of the aisle, many of whom are themselves responsible for the $3 trillion and counting Iraq War, are like the old men who heckle the Muppet Show from the balcony. Via GOP: The…

  • Politics, Schmolitics

    Happy Labor Day – Thank The Martyrs of the Chicago Haymarket Massacre (Who?)

    We Americans have no idea that American labor union members in Chicago fought and died for the right to work no more than an 8-hour day, and their sacrifice is remembered the world over and commemorated on May Day. A policeman died, too – but although he may have been there to protect strikers and strikebreakers from each other, he was identified with the kind of thugs corporations send to break up labor disputes. Actually, several policement and an unknown number of workers died, all told. Utah Phillips speaking at the Haymarket Martyr’s Memorial for the 100th anniversary We Americans…