GOP reality crushes satire

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Sunday September 28, 2008 · 12:20 PM PDT

2008/09/28 · 12:20

OK, kids, quiz time!

Can you tell which answer below is actually Sarah Palin? (The question was about the $700 billion bailout package on the table earlier this week.)

QUOTE 1: That's why I say I, like every American I'm speaking with, we're ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health-care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, helping the—it's got to be all about job creation, too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track....

QUOTE 2: Like every American I'm speaking with, we are ill about this. We're sayin' hey, why bail out Fanny and Freddie and not me? But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those that are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, to help, uh --- it's got to be all about job creation, too. Also to shoring up our economy and putting Fannie and Freddie back on the right track...

The quotes in their entirety, and answer below the fold. No peeking!

DCBlues

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Sunday January 28, 2007 · 1:51 PM PST

2007/01/28 · 13:51

I was just watching a great movie, The Americanization of Emily, written by Paddy Chayevsky. Chayevsky's words, spoken by James Garner, hit hard, given the war we're currently "lacking the stomach for":

DCBlues

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Friday October 06, 2006 · 7:32 PM PDT

2006/10/06 · 19:32

I'm watching the season premiere of Battlestar Galactica, and I'm totally floored.

If you haven't been following the show, at the end of last season the humans found a habitable planet, dubbed it New Caprica, and settled. A year later, the Cylons show up and take over.

Tonight, we find out how the occupation has been going. WARNING: spoilers after the cut. Read More

CNN says it right, displays phony poll numbers

DCBlues

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Thursday September 21, 2006 · 4:37 AM PDT

2006/09/21 · 04:37

I was just watching CNN. They were announcing the results of the latest New York Times/CBS poll. Soledad O'Brien read the results correctly, Bush was at 37% approval, 56 disapproval.

The graphic showed Bush at 47% approval, 45% disapproval. I checked with my Tivo just to make sure I didn't imagine it.

(The clock on the Tivo shows 7:08 this morning, if anyone wants to check. I have no way to download the video or take a screenshot.)

So what the hell is going on? Who at CNN made up a phony graphic showing Bush's poll numbers improving? This is the "most trusted name in news"?

The West Wing does it again

DCBlues

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Sunday April 30, 2006 · 6:07 PM PDT

2006/04/30 · 18:07

I so want to live in the West Wing world. And not just because the Democrat won the election.

I know that some of you live on the west coast or TiVO WW, so I've put the rest of this after the break... [SPOILER ALERT] Read More

Mea culpa - who cares if a nominee is nice?

DCBlues

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Friday January 13, 2006 · 10:10 AM PST

2006/01/13 · 10:10

Back when CJ Roberts was nominated, I wrote a diary entry in which I opined that he might not be so bad. He is, after all, a nice guy, brilliant, by all accounts decent to others. I had met him, and he is absolutely charming in person.

I was slammed as being, among other things, a DLC tool, a dupe, and worst of all, a Republican. It hurt.

As the Roberts nomination progressed, I realized just how wrong I was. He may give his paper boy a nice tip, but he hates the Fourth Amendment. He may be kind and generous to his law clerks, but I have no doubt that he'll support the Administration's right to detain people indefinitely without charge.

How this relates to ScAlito after the break... Read More

Bush's impairment

DCBlues

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Sunday November 13, 2005 · 1:02 PM PST

2005/11/13 · 13:02

As noted in at least a couple of places (e.g., AmericaBlog and Atrios), Crooks and Liars has a video showing Bush this past Monday night, appearing at an event for Kilgore. The video is compiled from several sources, but all from that night.

Since I'm not Bill Frist, I'm not comfortable making a diagnosis through a video, but Bush's speech is clearly slurred, and he's visibly leaning on Laura when getting off his plane. As a layman, I think he sure looks and sounds plastered.

Regardless, he's noticeably impaired. There are other causes for this kind of impairment besides intoxication, but so what? The "leader of the free world" should not be allowed to appear in public like this. There is something wrong here, and the American people deserve to know what.

Now that the media is gradually recovering its spine, will they be brave enough to ask?

Judge Roberts

DCBlues

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Tuesday July 19, 2005 · 6:44 PM PDT

2005/07/19 · 18:44

We're all understandably nervous about anyone that Bush might nominate. But having actually met and spoken with Judge Roberts recently, I'm feeling OK about this.

I found him to be extremely thoughtful, and very conscious of his role as a judge, not approaching cases as a chance to validate his own personal views. Frankly, I liked him, based on the half hour my group got to speak with him. (No, I didn't see into his heart...)

I also have a number of colleagues and acquaintances who know him well from his days at Hogan and Hartson, and even the liberals have nothing but praise and respect for him. To a one, they all said that they would feel good about him being on the Court.

More after the break... Read More

CNN follows the White House model

DCBlues

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Sunday July 17, 2005 · 7:16 PM PDT

2005/07/17 · 19:16

No sooner do I write about the lack of accountability in the Bush administration then CNN announces the same standard for Novak:

Journalist Robert Novak's status as a CNN contributor will remain unaffected during a federal probe into the revelation of a CIA officer's identity, executives at the news channel said Sunday.

"I think we're all aware that no one really knows what's going on in the investigation of the Valerie Plame incident," said Jonathan Klein, president of CNN/U.S. "So it would be awfully presumptuous of us to take steps against a guy in his career based on second, third, fourth-hand reporting."

More below... Read More

What happened to the "Era of Responsibility"?

DCBlues

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Sunday July 17, 2005 · 3:59 PM PDT

2005/07/17 · 15:59

Ed Kilgore, writing over at TMPCafe, gets it exactly right:

Recall George W. Bush's meta-message during the 2000 campaign: it was time for a "responsibility era" to rein in the excesses introduced by the out-of-control Baby Boomer Bill Clinton. The grown-ups, emblemized by Dick Cheney and other Bush 41 exiles, were ready to give America a mature and accountable government.
That has turned out to be the biggest Bush lie of them all.

More after the break... Read More

Not a good sign for the DCCC

DCBlues

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Sunday January 16, 2005 · 8:40 AM PST

2005/01/16 · 08:40

Just watched Rahm Emmanuel on Meet the Press. Russert was everything I expected - when Dan Bartlett was on, Russert asked "tough" questions but then took the spin at face value. When Emmanuel was on, Russert played "quote gotcha". No surprises from Russert, anyone would've known what was coming.

What disappointed me was Emmanuel's response to the anticipated questions about Social Security. All he had to do was say three words: "There's no crisis."

It's simple, it has the added benefit of being true and supported by the facts. But he never said it or anything like it. Emmanuel ducked and dodged, despite having the facts on his side. He simply would not make an unequivocal statement, and it looked weak as hell. By the third or fourth Russert follow up, I was screaming at the TV.

If this is the guy who's going to unify our message, we're in big trouble. Are there no plain-speaking Democrats any more?

Voting machines

DCBlues

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Sunday November 07, 2004 · 8:18 AM PST

2004/11/07 · 08:18

I would have posted this as a comment to Kid Oakland's excellent entry, but 500+ comments was already a bit much.

I agree with Kid, but for a different reason. It's becoming clear to me that the problems with voting machines have little to do with actual fraud and a lot to do with sheer incompetence on the part of the computer programmers. I was a professional programmer for over a decade, including 3 years as a software engineer for IBM, and I have a graduate degree in Computer Science, so I have some idea of what I'm talking about.

Here's the story that tipped me off: Broward Machines Count Backwards. The story describes a problem in the software from ES&S: once a vote count goes over about 32,000, it starts going down. This actually happened in Broward County, Florida when the elections board was processing absentee ballots. The same software is used in Miami-Dade.

Is this evidence of tampering with Democratic counties? Alas, no. It's evidence of sheer incompetence at ES&S. I explain after the break. Read More

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GOP reality crushes satire

The religion of cowardice

New Caprica = Iraq - Battlestar Galactica gets it (SPOILERS)

CNN says it right, displays phony poll numbers

The West Wing does it again

Mea culpa - who cares if a nominee is nice?

Bush's impairment

Judge Roberts

CNN follows the White House model

What happened to the "Era of Responsibility"?

Not a good sign for the DCCC

Voting machines