Recently in Politics Category

With the Copenhagen conference and "Climategate," the Internet and the media are abuzz with climate change.  I think more rational voices are being drowned out, though, by the bickering between those that have become polarized in the political debate.  (Gee, does that sound familiar?)  The lines between good science, good problem solving, and good policy have been blurred to everyone's detriment.  Let's try to unravel this Gordian knot a bit.First, the science.I was a climate...

Speaking of Republican amnesia, how about our very own Kay Clueless Bailey Hutchison? When asked by David Shuster about where Republicans, who are complaining about President Obama taking too long to act on sending additional troops to Afghanistan, were when George W. Bush didn't act at all on a request for more forces by General McKiernan last summer, Hutchison's response was Palinesque. In other words, unrelated, non-responsive, gibberish. From Crooks and Liars: 　 Would it...

Senator Orrin Hatch on the floor of the Senate, speaking about the health care reform bill. From Think Progress: "This will become one more example of the arrogance of power being exerted since the Democrats secured a 60-vote majority in the United States Senate and took over the House and the White House. I dream some day of having the Republicans have 60 votes. I'll tell you one thing, I think we would finally have...

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on Meet the Press, to be aired today: "We will have a hundred thousand troops there and they are not leaving in July of 2011. Some handful or some small number or whatever the conditions permit will begin to withdraw at that time." 　 That certainly sounds like a firm commitment to me, he said sarcastically....

Remember this ad from the 2008 campaign? 　 Remember how the McCain campaign and their lackeys on talk-radio and the Fox Propaganda Channel went nuts over the crowd chanting "Obama, Obama?" Fast forward to yesterday in Plano, Texas at Sarah Palin's book-signing. "Palin, former governor of Alaska, arrived around 11 a.m. Friday, shaking a few hands but not speaking publicly before she headed inside. The crowd chanted, "Sarah, Sarah" and "Palin, Palin." Remember the reaction...

Some odds and ends from around the intertoobs before I head out in search of the perfect snow shovel in preparation for the Great Texas Blizzard of '09:Someone put the G-nO-P on suicide watch, unemployment is coming down. What a shocker, Sarah Palin is a birther. Speaking of Sarah, she's set to be the keynote speaker at the 2010 International Bowl Expo. Gutter ball, anyone?WWJD? Cut the estate tax. So says Louie Gohmert.  Health care...

The opinions of the blogger represent only this blogger and not the Daily Hurricane. Furthermore, the words that follow are written with tongue firmly planted in cheek. My best friend in college (and the best man at my wedding) always used to love to ban things. We were never certain of the rhyme or reason for the banning or how exactly the ban would work. In his vernacular, a ban meant that he would stop using...

As I sat down to watch President Obama's speech last night I wanted to try and be as objective as possible about what he was going to say. Although my personal preference would be to begin the withdrawal of our troops from Afghanistan, or at least to not escalate our 8-year old and counting involvement there, I knew that neither one of those was going to be the case. The three major areas I wanted...

As we await President Obama's speech from West Point tonight on sending a reported 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan (sigh) there is so much conflicting information, so many contradictory statements, and frankly, so much bullshit coming out of those who are supposedly in the know, that it's difficult to know what to believe or expect. I'll start with this:"The new deployments, along with 22,000 troops he authorized early this year, would bring the total U.S....

Today's political world is based on "he who pays gets to play".  Corporations have learned that spending money on Washington gets results.  Recent lobbying efforts by the healthcare industry has helped push thru watered down healthcare reform measures that will guarantee an increased customer base without any real protection from price gouging by the insurance companies.  Sure the insurance companies have fought tooth and nail over reform, but they know if reform does pass they...