The Tea Partyesque Midterm of 1950

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Sunday April 25, 2010 · 9:27 AM PDT

2010/04/25 · 09:27

60 years ago this week, Pat McCarran (D-NV) started work on the McCarran Act, an omnibus internal security bill - a serious imposition on civil liberties. As conservative as Sen. McCarran was, the real reason for the egregious bill was the rising tide of McCarthyist anticommunism. The popular groundswell was being used as a factless bludgeon to question the 'loyalty' of Democrats ahead of the 1950 midterm election.

efraker

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Tuesday March 30, 2010 · 1:43 PM PDT

2010/03/30 · 13:43

The National League for Democracy, the party of Nobel Peace Prize winner Daw Aung San Suu Ki is refusing to register for Burma's (or Myanmar, as the military dictatorship calls it) coming elections in protest over new regulations. In a unanimous decision, the NLD is refusing to compromise their principles and surrender to the undemocratic prerequisites of the Political Party Registration Law.

efraker

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Thursday March 25, 2010 · 2:29 PM PDT

2010/03/25 · 14:29

I've been thinking about Colo's diary from yesterday about the moral duality implicit in right-wing values, as evinced by a woman she met named June. June went out of her way to help our Colo, a stranger she met in trying circumstances; and June also holds some bigoted views, declaring that a Muslim isn't fit to be an American president. I'm not going to talk about the duality, or cognitive dissonance, or the parable of the Good Samaritan. I'm going to talk about what Flannery O'Connor has to say about all this, because it's her birthday, and I love her.

efraker

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Monday March 22, 2010 · 8:44 PM PDT

2010/03/22 · 20:44

I lost yesterday; I don't condone the health care bill as passed, and was at best ambivalent to its passage. And what did I get as a consolation prize? Among other things, a guarantee that children can get health insurance — even if they have a pre-existing illness — and a measure that would let young adults stay on their parents' policies until they turn 26 - the guarantee that anyone can buy insurance - and the government subsidies to help pay for it.

I wonder if this is how the early Mozarabs felt.

efraker

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Saturday March 20, 2010 · 11:30 AM PDT

2010/03/20 · 11:30

Monday, March 22nd is the United Nation's World Water Day - a day in which to focus attention on critical issues related to care and access of one of the few things we all truly need. This year's theme for World Water Day is "Clean Water for a Healthy World" and deals largely with the problems of providing potable water and hygienic sanitation to all the world's people.

efraker

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Thursday March 18, 2010 · 1:45 PM PDT

2010/03/18 · 13:45

A brief summary of the Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea (Tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibea) is a book written in theatrical form (no 3rd party voice - all narration is in the 1st person) that is considered to be one of the greatest works of Spanish literature. It is better known by the name of its central protagonist, La Celestina.

La Celestina is a story of how society expects us to bluff our way through life - and when we refuse to play along, and try to live an honest life, we should expect to be decried as the most despicable, egotistical, hypocritical liar of all.

efraker

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Saturday March 13, 2010 · 10:15 AM PST

2010/03/13 · 10:15

One can't overstate the importance of keeping some people out of power. I'm not going to get into how crucial that is because it'd take up an entire diary, and because I think everyone here agrees. It is for this reason that the 'yellow dog' (or similarly, 'lesser of two evils') argument for supporting Democrats in general elections is so compelling - at least a cowardly woozle isn't possessed by the ludicrous 'nostalgia for an age that never existed' that would have us building machine-gun nests at the border and mandating prayer-periods in public schools.

That said - we do a disservice to those we elect by not constraining the misuse of power with legitimate accountability.

efraker

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Tuesday March 09, 2010 · 4:18 PM PST

2010/03/09 · 16:18

Dennis Kucinich may be feeling even lonelier than usual today - but I want him to know he's not alone. I just sent the second largest political donation I've ever sent to Kucinich, second only to what I gave Barack Obama in 2009. Please, if you agree with me, follow this link and send him a small token of your appreciation - if you don't agree with me, please read further and then tell me why I'm wrong.

My money, where my mouth is:

efraker

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Thursday March 04, 2010 · 3:56 PM PST

2010/03/04 · 15:56

There is an unintentionally fantastic interview between Daniel Ellsberg, the person who leaked the 'Pentagon Papers' (documents which explicitly detailed the ways in which four American presidents had misled the public to expand a war the public didn't want) and Robin Young. I say unintentionally because Young seems to be surprised that Ellsberg wants to use the interview to talk about current events, not promote his Oscar nominated movie, The Most Dangerous Man in America.

efraker

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Friday February 19, 2010 · 3:13 PM PST

2010/02/19 · 15:13

The note that Joe Stack left behind when he set off to fulfill his murderous ambitions is emblematic of a break down in discourse.

efraker

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Saturday January 30, 2010 · 12:41 PM PST

2010/01/30 · 12:41

First - this is about Hillary Rodham Clinton, not Health Care Reform. :)

Secretary of State Clinton has announced she "can't imagine" serving in her current capacity for another four years, because its "very challenging" (surely there are other reasons too, but that's what she said). I think if anyone could do it for 8 years it'd be HRC - but having been in her position, heck if I know. That said, far be it from me to second-guess her judgment on whether or not she is fit to serve 8 years.

The automatic question then, is who should follow her? Foreign Policy has a couple of ideas...

Poll

164 votes Show Results

If you could vote for Sec. of State, who would you vote for?

164 votes Vote Now!

If you could vote for Sec. of State, who would you vote for?

John Kerry

55 votes

Richard Lugar

8 votes

Jim Steinberg

4 votes

Susan Rice

33 votes

Richard Holbrooke

6 votes

George Mitchell

13 votes

Chuck Hagel

14 votes

General David Petraeus

12 votes

Write-in (explication in comments)

19 votes

SOTU From Across The Atlantic

efraker

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Thursday January 28, 2010 · 6:19 PM PST

2010/01/28 · 18:19

Alex Massie's article in Foreign Policy about how the SOTU and more broadly the American system of government is functioning. He subtly hints at his opinion of our unique political system in the title, "An Aggregation of Nincompoops".

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The Tea Partyesque Midterm of 1950

Refusing Evil At The Crossroads; NLD Says: No Deal!

Flannery O'Connor Invites June Over For Tea

Couldn't Have Lost to a Nicer Guy

For Lack Of It, 10,000 People Die Daily

A Frank Enemy, A True Friend; Honesty's Premium

Even Yellow Dogs Can Promote Accountability

Kucinich Fights for the Soul of Our Party

Pentagon Papers Leaker Calls Bush 'Domestic Enemy'

the definition of insanity

Who Will Replace HRC?

SOTU From Across The Atlantic