Archive for Scott P
A lifelong Delawarean who has left-of-center views -- and he's not afraid to use them.
Conservatives Rewrite History and Their Values…Again!
Want to know the best part about being a Conservative in America (besides the hot chicks, of course)? The fact that you can say and stand for anything you want, because when the time comes that you realize you were wrong, you can completely change your position without ever admitting that it is a change. [...]
3Jun2010 | Scott P | 10 comments | Continued
Tea Party Takes Over the Maine GOP
One of the continuing stories/themes these days is just what effect, short-term and long-term, the Tea Party movement will have on American politics in general, and the Republican Party specifically. Mock it all you want (please, mock it…it’s fun!), but the Tea Party is a real force right now. For proof, look no farther (further?) [...]
12May2010 | Scott P | 7 comments | Continued
Lindsey Graham Fights for Terrorists’ Right to Buy Guns
There has been a lot of talk recently about what sorts of rights terrorists, or suspected terrorists, should have. Should they have the right to a fair trial? Should they have the right to protection from cruel and unusual punishment? Should they have the right to be informed of their rights? There has even been talk [...]
10May2010 | Scott P | 10 comments | Continued
The Tea Party Effect Demonstrated
Yesterday was a day of congressional primaries in Indiana, North Carolina, and Ohio. While I don’t care to go into details about each and every one (although if you do, Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post has a good wrap-up), there is an over-riding trend that I do want to take note of. For the [...]
5May2010 | Scott P | 8 comments | Continued
Can We Blame Dick Cheney for the Oil Spill?
According to William Galston of The New Republic, we just might be able to pin a good bit of the blame for the Deepwater Horizon spill on our illustrious…no, that’s not the word I’m looking for…despicable former Vice President. There’s no single smoking gun, or rig, as it were, but there is a collection of [...]
5May2010 | Scott P | 3 comments | Continued
The White House’s Top Ten FinReg Loophole Watchlist
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer has a very interesting post today on the official White House blog listing what, in the administration’s eyes, are the 10 most wanted lobbyist loopholes in respect to financial reform. As has been noted, with the breaking last week of the Republican filibuster of the Motion to Proceed, the financial [...]
4May2010 | Scott P | 1 comment | Continued
What Are Republicans Trying to Achieve on FinReg?
I know this isn’t as exciting as burning terror cars or oiled-up shrimping grounds, but here’s a few words about Financial Reform. Late last Wednesday night, as Senate Democrats were threatening to pull out the cots and force Republicans to stay all night to actively filibuster Chris Dodd’s Financial Regulation Reform bill, Republicans finally relented and [...]
3May2010 | Scott P | 4 comments | Continued
The GOP FinReg Proposal — A Good Sign or Bad?
Last night, Republicans released their counter-proposal to Chris Dodd’s Financial Reform Bill (full text here). I don’t claim to have read either in its entirety, but the general consensus seems to be that they are not all that fundamentally different. Annie Lowrey of the Washington Independent has a good comparison of the two proposals. Here [...]
28Apr2010 | Scott P | 12 comments | Continued
So What’s Next: Climate or Immigration?
Well, today was supposed to be the first day of the rest of our lives, climate change legislationally-speaking. John Kerry, Joe Leiberman, and Lindsey Graham were set to publicly unveil their “tripartisan” climate change bill today, at least until Graham decided to walk away. Now, it has been indefinitely postponed.
The reason for Graham’s defection seems [...]
Is FOX News Too Liberal for You, Too?
Have you ever sat at home and thought to yourself, “Man, I can’t stand all this liberal garbage on FOX News. I wish someone would start a real conservative network”? If so, you’re apparently not alone. Enter, RightNetwork. RightNetwork is a newly-launched online network that plans on launching a television version later this summer. It [...]
22Apr2010 | Scott P | 2 comments | Continued
The Myth of the $50 Billion Bailout Fund
In a stunning display of either a lack of short-term memory or full-blown dementia, Congressional Republicans are taking the exact same losing playbook they used during the health care reform fight and are now applying it to the financial reform battle. Just as they did before, they have all latched on to a memo written [...]
20Apr2010 | Scott P | 6 comments | Continued
Is Karl Rove Setting Up a “Shadow RNC”?
This story has apparently been bouncing around for a few weeks, but has just recently come to my attention. It’s no secret that many old guard, big money Republicans have been less than thrilled with the leadership ability shown by Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele. And while many big donors have been avoiding or [...]
19Apr2010 | Scott P | 5 comments | Continued
When Talking Points Strike Back
Remember how, not long ago, Republicans were saying how bad the health care reform bill was because it was created through “backroom deals”? And remember how a lot of smart people pointed out that, um, that’s how all legislation is made? And that quite possibly, far from being done in a secretive manner, the ultimate [...]
16Apr2010 | Scott P | 3 comments | Continued
An Open Letter to the Tea Party
Dear Tea Party Members and Sympathizers,
Happy (or do I wish you an Angry?) Tax Day to you. Since you seem to have appropriated today as your holiday, I thought it would be a good opportunity to try to reach out to you. Despite what some may think, I consider myself to be a fairly intelligent and open-minded [...]
Now the Tea Partiers Want Their Own Army
I’m sorry, but no good can come of this. From the great conservative state of Oklahoma, site of the largest domestic terrorist attack in US history, we get this story about a Tea Party umbrella group that is looking to form an official, state-approved militia. The scariest part is that this is not just some crazy [...]
13Apr2010 | Scott P | 14 comments | Continued
Stupak to Announce Retirement Today
Insider sources are saying this morning that Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak of Michigan will announce today that he will not not seek re-election this fall. He is expected to have a news conference later this morning to officially announce his intentions.
Had Stupak run for re-election, he would have faced challenges from just about every direction. [...]
Get Your GOP Talking Points Now and Beat the Rush
Via Dave Neiwert at Crooks and Liars, we get a sneak preview of what at least one influential conservative wants to be a main Republican talking point this fall. While blabbering incoherently talking to Sean Hannity Tuesday night on Hannity’s FOX News show, Newt Gingrich regurgitated the factually untrue and already debunked right-wing myth about [...]
8Apr2010 | Scott P | 7 comments | Continued
Pssst…Wanna Buy a Judge?
Ever since the Supreme Court issued its January ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC), lifting the ban on corporate spending on elections, most of the attention has been directed towards how this would effect things like presidential and congressional races. And while there now will certainly be the opportunity for big corporations [...]
5Apr2010 | Scott P | 4 comments | Continued
Affordable Care Act Survives Its First Challenge
In case you missed it yesterday, the ACA survived the first of what will undoubtedly be many attempts to nip at the edges of its authority. The issue at hand this time was the provision that insurers would be prohibited from denying to coverage to children with pre-existing conditions. The goal and spirit of the law [...]
31Mar2010 | Scott P | 6 comments | Continued
So This Is What They Meant by Bipartisan
We all know that Republicans have been going on about how much they want to work in a bipartisan way with Democrats, but we always figured they were doing it with their fingers crossed behind their backs. It turns out, though, that we were wrong — Republicans really do want bipartisanship. Yesterday, on FOX News [...]
29Mar2010 | Scott P | 9 comments | Continued
The Nexus of Wingnut
Get ready everyone for Kookapocalypse Now! Well, OK, not now. Actually, April 7. That’s when former Governor, former VP candidate, and current Queen of the Tea Baggers Sarah Palin will host a fundraiserfor Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann. Yup. That’s right. Palin and Bachmann will be together in the same room. Physicists at CERN are concerned that [...]
26Mar2010 | Scott P | 28 comments | Continued
The GOP Is Now Officially Guilty of Petulance
I think it was noted here somewhere the other day that on Tuesday, Senate Republicans used a little-known rule to prevent hearings from proceeding past 2:00 PM. In fact, our own beloved Sen. Carper was forced to halt a Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing on transparency due to Republicans’ refusal to give unanimous consent to [...]
25Mar2010 | Scott P | 24 comments | Continued
Postal Service Looking for Five Day Week
This idea has been kicked around for several years now, but the US Postal Service is now taking the first formal steps toward five-day delivery:
The postal governing board agreed to ask the independent Postal Regulatory Commission for an opinion on dropping Saturday delivery. That request goes to the commission next week.
Under the proposal, mail delivery [...]
One Simple Reason Why the Health Care Law’s Mandate IS Constitutional
First of all, let me say how much better I like writing “Health Care Law” than “Health Care Bill”. But on to the topic, there is a simple but under-reported fact in the whole “The individual mandate is unconstitutional” debate, that, while not new, only came to my attention last night. Last night on Countdown, [...]
24Mar2010 | Scott P | 25 comments | Continued
HCR 2010 = WMD 2002
Anyone who’s been around this site lately should recognize the title of this post. It’s the little signature that commenter anonone has been putting at the end of his comments. Well, I’ve been thinking about this a bit (no, I don’t have anything better to do — thanks for asking) and I’ve decided that he [...]
23Mar2010 | Scott P | 6 comments | ContinuedSocial Media
