Archive for February, 2011

Outrage Speech: Was the Left Right?

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2 years ago
by Monotreme in

Pima County Sher­iff Clarence Dup­nik at the post-​​shooting press con­fer­ence. Source: AP.

Pima County Sher­iff Clarence Dupnik’s widely-​​reported obser­va­tion that hate speech was par­tially respon­si­ble for the shoot­ing of Rep. Gabrielle Gif­fords (D-​​AZ) has prompted sev­eral heated dis­cus­sions on this blog, as well as other venues.

Let me say one thing, because peo­ple tend to pooh-​​pooh this busi­ness about all the vit­riol that we hear inflam­ing the Amer­i­can pub­lic by peo­ple who make a liv­ing off of doing that. That may be free speech, but it’s not with­out consequences.

Paul Krug­man took this fur­ther:

Where’s that toxic rhetoric com­ing from? Let’s not make a false pre­tense of bal­ance: it’s com­ing, over­whelm­ingly, from the right. It’s hard to imag­ine a Demo­c­ra­tic mem­ber of Con­gress urg­ing con­stituents to be “armed and dan­ger­ous” with­out being ostra­cized; but Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Michele Bach­mann, who did just that, is a ris­ing star in the G.O.P.

And there’s a huge con­trast in the media. Lis­ten to Rachel Mad­dow or Keith Olber­mann, and you’ll hear a lot of caus­tic remarks and mock­ery aimed at Repub­li­cans. But you won’t hear jokes about shoot­ing gov­ern­ment offi­cials or behead­ing a jour­nal­ist at The Wash­ing­ton Post. Lis­ten to Glenn Beck or Bill O’Reilly, and you will.

On this blog and else­where, the dis­cus­sion devolved into a pre­dictable round of tu quoque, where com­menters who iden­ti­fied them­selves as con­ser­v­a­tive accused the left of just as much out­rage speech as the right. (more…)

What to Cut

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2 years ago
by Michael Weiss in

It is often said that if a pro­posal draws ire from both sides of the polit­i­cal aisle, it must be good. By that met­ric, Obama’s 2011 bud­get pro­posal is a winner.

The White House pro­posal comes a few days after House Repub­li­cans pro­posed a $100 bil­lion reduc­tion, not from 2010 lev­els, but from pro­posed 2011 lev­els. Why does this mat­ter? Because the 2011 pro­posal calls for a total increase of $90 bil­lion over 2010. So the GOP pro­posal calls for merely $10 bil­lion in less spend­ing, com­pared to 2010. There’s a lot to look over in their pro­posal. (more…)

CPAC Straw Poll

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2 years ago
by Monotreme in

Straight or Bendy?

CPAC Straw Poll results are out

Ron Paul – 30%
Mitt Rom­ney – 23%
Gary John­son – 6%
Chris Christie – 6%
Newt Gin­grich – 5%
Tim Paw­lenty – 4%
Michele Bach­mann – 4%
Mitch Daniels – 4%
Sarah Palin – 3%
Her­man Cain – 2%
Mike Huck­abee – 2%
Rick San­to­rum – 2%
John Thune – 2%
Jon Hunts­man – 1%
Haley Bar­bour – 1%

I will not (at this time) be able to move com­ments from one post to another, so please indulge me while I copy and paste them. I will iden­tify the author, but they’ll appear under my name for the time being.

Related Arti­cles

The Economics of Blogging

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2 years ago
by Monotreme in

Nate has an inter­est­ing arti­cle up on the “Eco­nom­ics of Blog­ging” using the sale of HuffPo as a springboard.

One inter­est­ing fac­toid I got from the arti­cle: 1,000 page views are worth about $6.25.

It’s a really good analy­sis of the prob­lems with blog­ging, and read­ing it, you can see why almost all blogs are labors of love.

In This Corner…Michele Bachmann

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2 years ago
by dcpetterson in

2012 Con­tender Series: Michele Bach­mann

Michele Marie Bach­mann is the U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for Minnesota’s 6th con­gres­sional dis­trict. This dis­trict wraps around out­side the north­ern half of the Minneapolis/​St. Paul met­ro­pol­i­tan area, extend­ing to the north­west to include St. Cloud. The dis­trict is mostly sub­ur­ban, tend­ing toward rural farm­land as it moves away from the Twin Cities. This dis­trict was once rep­re­sented by Charles August Lind­bergh, father of the famed avi­a­tor. Rep. Bachmann’s pub­lic per­sona has reflected the con­ser­v­a­tive pol­i­tics of her district.

Rep. Michele Bach­mann offi­cial photo.

I intend in this arti­cle to avoid much edi­to­ri­al­iz­ing. I will also resist the temp­ta­tion to present many quotes. Pluck­ing those low-​​hanging fruit would sim­ply be mean; the facts speak for themselves.

Her first term in the House began in Jan­u­ary of 2007, when she replaced retir­ing two-​​term Repub­li­can Mark Kennedy. She had pre­vi­ously served for six years in the Min­nesota State Sen­ate, defeat­ing 18-​​year incum­bent Gary Laidig to secure the GOP endorse­ment in 2000. In Novem­ber of 2003, she co-​​sponsored a Min­nesota state Con­sti­tu­tional Amend­ment that would have banned same-​​sex mar­riage. Her efforts to get that pro­posed amend­ment on a bal­lot ref­er­en­dum failed. She tried again in 2004, and again the state Sen­ate rejected her pro­posal. (more…)

The Unkindest Cut

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2 years ago
by filistro in

Q: What’s even worse than being sub­jected to the pain and indig­nity of a vasectomy?

A: Endur­ing the pain and indig­nity of a vasec­tomy, hav­ing it fail, and get­ting your wife preg­nant anyhow.

Q: What’s even worse than that?

A: Being the doc­tor who per­formed the botched vasec­tomy, and dis­cov­er­ing the cou­ple who got preg­nant as a result are suing you for child care.

(more…)

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