The Emperor's New Passport

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Saturday April 02, 2011 · 3:34 PM PDT

2011/04/02 · 15:34

When I took a look at my partner's new passport, I thought, oh, that's nice-- it's highly design-intensive, very aesthetic. John Adams, old-fashioned typeface, all that. When I finally got to the back, thought, I was floored. I came away from the new quotes included in the interior thinking, "I'm so proud of my country-- but also so mad! I sound like a Tea Partier... wait, is this how most white Americans feel most of the time?"

Your new passport has quotes from race woman Anna Julia Cooper and astronaut Ellison Onizuka. Take a look inside, and let's see why this matters.

noabsolutes

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Saturday May 22, 2010 · 2:23 PM PDT

2010/05/22 · 14:23

Rand Paul's brand of libertarianism is a pretext for a certain aggressive, rights-recognizing, claim-resolving, force-using, muscular "minimal" state, the way libertarians like to say.

There's something wrong with the variety of liberal thought called libertarianism when it shows up in forms like Rand Paul's turn as an apologist for "Whites Only" signs on private businesses and "Accidents happen" in the Gulf of Mexico. And it's something we've seen before. Below the fold, when I say "Rand Paul" you can insert your favorite libertarian apologist as you see fit. I prefer to see Rand Paul defeated in the general election in Kentucky, but this post is about more than that.

Let's think about 3 things:

What does Rand Paul mean when he condemns "institutional racism"?

How can Rand Paul claim that he abhors racism, but he also thinks that a private business has the right to discriminate?

What function does Rand Paul believe government has in a "free" society (and it does, even in his philosophy)?

noabsolutes

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Saturday October 24, 2009 · 9:16 PM PDT

2009/10/24 · 21:16

The headline on Huffington Post right now? "Leaderless: Senate Pushes for Public Option without Obama's Support."

This? Is some old bullsh*t.

At what point, and I must be clear, I am already tired of this, but at what point will it be acceptable to say that there a direction that the finer negotiations about the shape of the healthcare reform bill can take that will not infuriate progressives and the media? Because I haven't seen it.

noabsolutes

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Tuesday September 01, 2009 · 5:38 PM PDT

2009/09/01 · 17:38

See the front page postabout how the President is sending weak signals, via Marc Ambinder, that he might draw a squiggly line in the sand about the public option as his preferred cost-control measure in healthcare reform? Does it have you nervous? Are you ready for another week like the one you had after the opening of Kathleen Sebelius's Homestyle Chicken and Waffles?

The carping hasn't even started about how Obama (and I'm used to calling the President "the President") has failed us, again, but I'm tired of it already. I'd like to skip that step and get straight to the "Stop whining," diary, because I think it's actually uncharacteristic of progressives to whine. It's a common misconception that liberals are whiners. But I was under the impression that we weren't primarily interested in reacting to cartoons of ourselves and were motivated, instead, by the possibility that an organized, informed citizenry can get sh*t done in a democracy.

Poll

12 votes Show Results

When the conservative, corporate media and the conservative, corporate-dominated political class pisses me off, I will...

12 votes Vote Now!

When the conservative, corporate media and the conservative, corporate-dominated political class pisses me off, I will...

write my member of Congress

0 votes

write my Senators

4 votes

write the White House

1 vote

write to a newspaper

0 votes

Tweet, and then get back to the good fight

0 votes

look at my healthcare bills and cry, then get back to the good fight

0 votes

pray, and then get back to the good fight

2 votes

think of Ted Kennedy, and then get back to the good fight

5 votes

Historian Ronald Takaki, Asian American legend, has died.

noabsolutes

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Thursday May 28, 2009 · 7:16 AM PDT

2009/05/28 · 07:16

I am sad to report that groundbreaking historian Ronald Takaki died on May 26. Born in 1939, he helped reintroduce the U.S. to Asian America, the people who have been part of this nation from its beginnings and who still struggle to be recognized as Americans today.

Obituary in AsianWeek.

noabsolutes

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Monday February 02, 2009 · 3:32 PM PST

2009/02/02 · 15:32

That a fan of the Civil Rights division of DOJ (though never a part of it) is going to be confirmed by the Senate is no small matter. Bush's DOJ stacked the division with cronies who defended religious institutions and targeted "reverse discrimination" more than, you know, plain discrimination. But Holder's confirmation, in my opinion, follows in the tradition of-- no, not Jesus and MLK, the way the floor debate went today-- but that of Thurgood Marshall: Damned Fine Lawyer and advocate for the rights of all Americans.

noabsolutes

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Sunday December 07, 2008 · 11:28 PM PST

2008/12/07 · 23:28

There's a recommended diary up right now touting the perils of recruiting "foreigners" (Pentagon expanding number of foreigners recruited.) to do military jobs that could be performed by gays and lesbians barred from serving openly. The firing of gay Arabic linguists appears to make this move contradictory, but it's not. You see, if these "legal residents," quoting the AP on the recruiting goals, are gay, they'll be fired too.

First of all, the arbitrary dismissal of these linguists from important jobs and the fact that Defense is considering new measures to fill their positions shows that they were indispensable, and in fact, irreplaceable. Everyone has a right to pursue a profession suited to their skills, and no one deserves to be pushed out of their job because of prejudice. That so many jobs exist in our society where one person can be pushed out in such a fashion and another person shoved into their position shows that, in the military and across the employment spectrum, too many employers are more interested in excusing their prejudice of choice than seeing to jobs that need to be done.

noabsolutes

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Monday September 01, 2008 · 8:36 PM PDT

2008/09/01 · 20:36

"I know Hillary Clinton. I served in the Senate with Hillary Clinton. Governor, you're no Hillary Clinton."

For all the talk of Palin siphoning off the votes of mythical latter-day Clintonistas who strangely ignore her positions on, well, everything, there's a real danger of Biden's obvious rhetorical prowess delivering such a blow to Palin's fragile, inexperienced ego during the VP debate that the backlash garners McCain-Palin a sympathy bounce.

noabsolutes

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Tuesday August 05, 2008 · 2:28 PM PDT

2008/08/05 · 14:28

McCain touts the safety of nuclear power at a plant that had a partial meltdown in 1966. Just like his earlier claim, "I know how to win wars," apparently McCain's claim that "I knew it was safe then, and I know it’s safe now" has got no juice.

Article on CBS news blog

noabsolutes

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Sunday April 13, 2008 · 5:42 PM PDT

2008/04/13 · 17:42

Today we've got two great front page stories on how jacked up our traditional media has become. From Outfoxed to Glenn Greenwald's astounding use of Lexis-Nexis (11th grader-level research, without an endowment from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur foundation even!), we've seen the establishment tout some basic memes with no basis in reality.

One of these memes has, of course, surfaced in our recent spin cycle. It's the myth of McSaint, McBush, McW, Mc-Hundred-Years-of-War. Senator Bomb Bomb. Now, we can all have a rousing good laugh at the fact that John Mc-Murderous-as-Cain-when-he-killed-Abel is treated with kid gloves, even though the Senator-from-Arizona-to-the-gates-of-hell used to be called "McNasty" in high school. I mean, it was 1954, cut him a break. That was a loooong time ago, and you know he's sensitive about his age. He's just... sensitive, that's all. Like he's sensitive to the needs of working-class ~~white~~ uh, blue ~~state~~ uh, collar, Reagan Democrats in central Pennsylvania. But you just won't listen, you trollop. You know your problem, you're just bitter.

noabsolutes

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Tuesday March 25, 2008 · 12:57 PM PDT

2008/03/25 · 12:57

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said today that Medicare is essentially a "government-regulated price-fixing system."

If you're paying attention, you might notice that the Bush administration is still trying to sell us their policies. Even the ones we thought they'd abandoned in favor of making George W. a "War President" (War Presidents get 25% in the Presidential Library section of Home Depot). Even 5 years after their failed, illegal, unnecessary war has proven to be the result of deception.

At a briefing that should have been about making Social Security and Medicare provide, you know, benefits to all Americans, Mike Leavitt got up in front of the podium and essentially railed against the social safety net at a time when Americans are feeling the crunch of an oncoming Depression. And to make sure we were clear that yes, privatizing Social Security is back, AGAIN, our Social Security Commissioner ended his remarks by scolding us to make sure our scraping by and begging for tips in these lean years is supplemented by more aggressive personal savings. You aren't saving enough, see.

Poll

25 votes Show Results

John McBush is going to try to privatize Social Security and Medicare

25 votes Vote Now!

John McBush is going to try to privatize Social Security and Medicare

Again

6 votes

Again?

1 vote

AGAIN?

14 votes

MCCAIN?

4 votes

Your Diaries can help us curtail the unitary executive!

noabsolutes

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Friday February 01, 2008 · 5:45 PM PST

2008/02/01 · 17:45

Bush is always talking about how Truman was unpopular. I'm waiting for someone to pop up and say, "Sir, I knew Harry S. Truman. You're no Truman. And also, I didn't even know Truman."

In a diary way long ago, before human spongiform candidate encephelopathy set in around here, smithneus pointed out that the New York Times article about a 1950 act to initiate mass jailings of suspected dissidents was incorrect on an important detail. The act in question, which thankfully never did lead to mass detentions, passed without President Truman's approval, but the article said the president signed it. Truman! You know, Truman, the guy who's always President in the parallel World War II video game universe from which George Bush draws analogies? Thanks smithneus! The McCarran Act was egregious, and Truman was no saint, but the act passed on the bloodlust of Congress alone-- that, and J. Edgar Hoover's megalomania. I was so mad at those damned dirty ~~apes~~liberals at the New York Times for suggesting that there was a precedent for the kind of executive power-grabs that we're seeing a resurgence, that i wrote to them to point out that they were wrong in their article. And they printed a correction!

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The Emperor's New Passport

"Rand Paul" sees a role for government.

The public option was President Obama's IDEA.

"Now make me do it."

Historian Ronald Takaki, Asian American legend, has died.

Eric Holder to become Attorney General of the United States (75-21).

We get marriage and the military, and then we go home and make dinner, FOREVER.

Alternate Universe Biden wins the debate

McCain Campaign Meltdown Goes Nuclear

John McC@#%*!

Remember Social Security and Medicare? Disaster Capitalism 2.0

Your Diaries can help us curtail the unitary executive!