January 2010 Archives

Stop the presses. President Obama has finally found something he is willing to fight for on health care reform. No, not the public option, but he didn't campaign on that anyway, or so he says. It's the 40% excise tax on benefits. Politico reported yesterday that the president delivered a "forceful" message to House Democrats that he "wants a final bill that includes a tax on Cadillac insurance plans." AP this morning says:"President Barack Obama...

Over the holidays right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh suffered sharp chest pains and was admitted to Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu.  Rush despite his record for clean living (sarcasm intended) did not suffer any real medical emergency and was released a couple of days later.  Upon his release from the hospital, Rush never one to waste an opportunity to look ignorant stated to the press:  "Based on what happened to me here, I don't think...

Yesterday, we had a pretty good mini-debate about Liberty vs. Security.  We all have different levels of comfort with how invasive we are willing to let airport security get in order to Keep Us Safe.  (I capitalize Keep Us Safe because it's become a catch phrase to the media as much as Just Say No and War on Terror have.) We all agreed we wanted to stay true to the constitution and had a very...

In an effort to give me more reason to make fun of them, the tea party patriots are going to boycott something, likely socialist in nature, on the anniversary of the inauguration of President Barack Obama on January 20th.  The Tea Party Patriots.ning.com teabaggers note that, while this is not a project of the tea party patriots, the "National Day of Strike" will "cripple" people and employees that support the "leftist agenda in every major city,...

Ping pong, anyone? With much of the national attention focused on the underpants bomber, the White House, the Senate, and the House are preparing for a game of three-way table tennis, as they work on the final version of the health care reform bill. Well it's not really 3-way, it's the White House and the Senate on one side, and the House on the other. I wonder how that's going to turn out? All this...

In case you felt like watching the All Holy Pure Conservatives eat the RINO's, here's a copy of the Lexington Co., South Carolina GOP's memo censuring Senator Graham for being belligerant and dangerous to freedom:     Whereas, u.s. Senator Lindsey Graham debased the longstanding Republican belief in economic competition and a free market by voting in favor of TARP and more government intervention; and   Whereas, TARP adds trillions to the national debt, contrary to...

Do you ever look at how members of Congress vote on any particular issue, health care reform for example, and wonder, what are they thinking? How can they be so out of touch and out of step with the majority of Americans? This might clear it up for you:"The Center for Responsive Politics released a study which found that, while only one percent of all Americans are millionaires, 44 percent of congressional members [237 out...

Welcome to my friendly little debate on political theory. There has been a lot made about the Christmas bomber on both sides of the equation. I usually don't do this, but I have to disagree with a fellow writer here at the Hurricane. Desperado wrote this piece  earlier on the Hurricane and while I agree with many of the points in the blog entry, I disagreed with the general tenor of the piece. Essentially, it made...

The Daily Hurricane has posted several pieces about the racism oft displayed (and later denied) at tea parties.  We've heard conservatives say time and time again that "it isn't about race, it's about taking back our country!" and blah, blah, blah.  I'll present to you, without further comment, this photograph obtained by the Washington Independent of Dale Robertson, self-proclaimed founder of the tea parties and operator of teaparty.org on February 27, 2009, in our very own stomping ground right here...

Whatever happened to the land of the free and the home of the brave? In the aftermath of the failed attempt of the Christmas Day underpants (Fruit of the Boom?) bomber will we become the land of the strip-searched and the home of the paranoid? Apparently so. Let the overreacting, pantswetting, and cowering in fear commence. And let the newer, simpler Bill of Rights be written, "Whatever it takes to keep us safe."Under the new...