Friday, June 20, 2008

Bite Me

Brooks doth protest too much.

I keep having this fantasy of Obama telling the Israeli Lobby, the Cuban Exiles, Faux News, the Wash Post editorial page, the Bush Dog Democrats, Joe Lieberman, and the other clowns ruining our Democracy to go screw themselves.

But in the absence of that, a reputation for ruthlessness won't hurt.

Is the Speaker of the House still a Dem?

I'm assuming the Speaker can block bills like this from coming to the Floor. But what do I know.

Remind me again, how did Steny Hoyer get to be Majority Leader?

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Choose Liberal

Greenwald:

A few weeks ago, Andrew Sullivan had an Op-Ed in The Washington Post regarding the extraordinary fact that the U.S. is only one of 12 countries in the world to ban HIV-positive individuals from entering the country, and he described the heavy toll that ban exacts on people such as himself who are living with the virus (This week, the new ACLU blog is hosting a symposium on lesbian and gay issues that includes a discussion of these and related matters).

The HIV ban was the work of the Jesse Helms-led right-wing in 1993. Although Iran hasn't followed that policy, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Yemen and Saddam Hussein's Iraq did. It's really baffling why the American Right is so obsessed with waging war against radical Islam and flamboyantly condemning other oppressive systems when they replicate and embrace so many of their most defining attributes.

Yes, it is baffling.

Maybe our very serious media establishment could ponder this question. Our Democratic candidates might want to mention it around, too. Campaign speeches, debates, TV ads, those would be great places to start.