Happy Blogiversary, Atrios!

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Tuesday April 17, 2012 · 7:27 AM PDT

2012/04/17 · 07:27

If you haven't been following Atrios' count down to the Wanker of the Decade, you should get thee over to Eschaton, in time for today's esteemed winner of this coveted title (widely expected to be the Mustache of Understanding and Friedman Unit namesake, Tom Friedman.)

The nine proud runners up (Megan McArdle, Richard Cohen, Diane Sawyer, Jonah Goldberg, "Lord" William Saletan, Mark Halperin, Joe Klein, Andrew Sullivan, and Fred Hiatt) have been announced, with copious documentation, over the past several weeks in honor of ten years of Blogging the Baby Blue. The whole series is worth a considerable read; it reminds us that we owe Duncan Black -- who prisoners does not take, punches does not pull -- a great debt of gratitude for his relentless exposure of the narcissism, laziness, and hypocrisy of America's High Punditry.

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Saturday February 18, 2012 · 11:20 AM PST

2012/02/18 · 11:20

A most sincere Welcome to Middle Age Day to Atrios, aka Duncan Black, one of the most venerable voices in the liberal blogosphere. When I first started ~~wasting startling amounts of time~~ contributing to our nation's debased political discourse on the internets almost nine (sic!) years ago, Eschaton and Daily Kos were actually very similar places, and there was much cross-fertilization. (In fact, on one or two rare occasions, Kos was seen in the Eschaton comments section.) While Markos soon moved toward the collaborative model that has developed into the sophisticated (heh) place we know today, Atrios remained resolutely low-tech, and other than shifting once or twice from one shitty comment system to another (haloscan, echo, disquss), his place looks very much the same as it did a decade ago. As someone who has spent quite a bit of time in both locales, I would say there is still a place for both types of site. In addition to his expertise (a PhD in economics, and an unceasing critic of those who refused to help those who most needed it during the Great Recession) and relentless hounding of the zombie lies that pervade our discourse, Atrios has offered a unique watering hole for a (well, mostly) good-hearted (and, now and then, quite funny themselves) group of commenters.

There's a birthday thread of sorts over there as well.

Cheers, Atrios!
(Raises a glass)
-- Stu

Vaclav Havel's Greengrocer

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Monday December 19, 2011 · 9:29 AM PST

2011/12/19 · 09:29

In reading the numerous thoughtful comments yesterday in SneakySnu's diary reporting the sad news of Vaclav Havel's passing, I added a few excerpts from Havel's seminal dissident essay "The Power of the Powerless" (written 1978, published in English as the titular essay of this volume a few years later) (then, too, in this volume with cheap used copies available). Given the incredible importance of this essay, both in its immediate political context and as a contribution to the literature on principled non-violent civil disobedience (in the tradition of Thoreau, the later Tolstoy, Gandhi, and MLK), I think it is very much worth examining in its own right as we remember Havel's legacy. [See also pico's terrific diary on Havel's literary career.]

At the center of this lengthy essay (excerpts of which can be found online here), Havel posits the figure of a "manager of a fruit-and-vegetable shop," a greengrocer, living in the absurdly repressive era of late socialist Central/Eastern Europe. And at the crux of this exploration is the question of conformity vs. quiet rebellion, the dilemma of how (and when, and why) to exercise individual will in a system that strives to crush all and any dissidence from public norms.

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Monday September 27, 2010 · 11:47 AM PDT

2010/09/27 · 11:47

... which, of course, we already knew. But political junkies like to look at poll internals because otherwise, you know, we might have to concentrate on our work on a rainy Monday afternoon, so I did just that with the new Muhlenberg/Morning Call PA-Senate poll (full pdf here).

First of all, the numbers show Toomey 46, Sestak 39, which is pretty much precisely in line with what a slew of other polls have been showing over the past couple of weeks. That is to say, Sestak is within ten points, but is consistently down by between six and nine, such that Nate Silver and other prognosticators give him very little chance of climbing the hill.

Looking at the internals confirms what we already know all too well: it isn't that Club For Growth Toomey is more popular in swing state Pennsylvania, but that pollsters believe that a lot of Democrats won't be voting on November 2nd.

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Friday September 10, 2010 · 4:56 AM PDT

2010/09/10 · 04:56

As Atrios, in his usual, inimitable way tweeted the other day:

if i promise to pee on a bible can i get every network to camp outside my door? #notgoingtopeeonabible

How to deal with a despicable figure like Radical Cleric Terry Jones, who is, in approximately equal measure, vicious bigot and attention whore? Like Fred Phelps, it is not enough for Jones to hate, he has a sociopathic need to be recognized for his hate. In normal circumstances, such a figure is best scorned and ignored, and it has been utterly infuriating that this sideshow lunatic bigot has gotten exactly what he wanted, an international platform for hate, his own 15 minutes of infamy. (In the end, of course, he could back off, mission already accomplished.)

As attention was draw to Gainesville, it was no longer possible for his neighbors to remain silent, and many in and around Gainesville began to recognize the necessity of speaking out loudly and clearly against the hatred in their midst. The "cancellation" (or "suspension") of this hateful act does not, needless to say, change the importance of their having done so.

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Thursday September 02, 2010 · 8:41 AM PDT

2010/09/02 · 08:41

A new Rasmussen poll shows the Florida's Governor race to be a virtual tie. Without leaners, teabagger Republican Rick Scott leads Democrat Alex Sink 45 to 44. With leaners, Sink leads Scott 48 to 47. (Rasmussen uses the "without leaners" as his headline numbers, although he notes in the article that after Labor Day he will be using the "with leaners.")

This is the first poll since independent Bud Chiles dropped out and endorsed Sink. Rasmussen's previous poll, taken last week just after Scott's primary victory, showed Scott leading Sink 41 to 36.

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Wednesday September 01, 2010 · 2:34 PM PDT

2010/09/01 · 14:34

Thanks to Sarah Palin's candidate, the Alaska Senate race has gone from a sure Republican hold to very much in play. A new poll from none other than Rasmussen shows Scott McAdams within 6 points of Teabagger Joe.

And if even Rasmussen is showing this at just 6 points ...

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Tuesday April 13, 2010 · 7:24 AM PDT

2010/04/13 · 07:24

Most Florida Kossians are undoubtedly already aware of the odious anti-teacher, anti-child, anti-education SB6, which has passed both the State Senate and the House, and now awaits the signature or veto of Governor Charlie Crist. Rian Fike has provided phenomenal coverage of this bill over the past several weeks and of the heroic efforts of Florida teachers to stop what amounts to the culmination of Jeb Bush's effort to dismantle public education in Florida.

Crist has until ~~this weekend~~ Friday to sign or veto the bill. Florida Kossians: Call or email the governor TODAY to urge in the strongest terms that he veto the bill.

Phone: 850-488-4441 or 850-488-7146

Email: Charlie.crist@myflorida.com

FEA website on SB6: http://makeourschoolsapriority.org/...

Sign Alex Sink's petition: http://www.alexsink2010.com/...

More on how our efforts will make a difference below the fold.

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Wednesday March 24, 2010 · 8:18 AM PDT

2010/03/24 · 08:18

File under "there is no such thing as a moderate Republican":

“That is why I fully support Attorney General Bill McCollum’s efforts to challenge the Constitutionality of a provision in the bill that mandates all Americans to purchase health insurance or face a fine.

“Any individual mandate of this kind from the federal government is unconstitutional, a direct attack on our essential personal liberties, and vastly increases the power of Washington bureaucrats that far exceeds the proper role of government.

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Wednesday March 10, 2010 · 10:51 AM PST

2010/03/10 · 10:51

We have all been led to believe, as we watch Charlie Crist's spectacular political decline, that in a head to head competition between either Marco Rubio or Crist and the likely Democratic nominee, Kendrick Meek that Meek is dead in the water. Indeed, the polling that had come out up until now had suggested that prospects for Meek were quite unfavorable. This, combined with Crist's fall, has led to a rash of speculation over whether Crist might consider running as an independent, or even jump parties.

But the PPP poll numbers released today, on top of yesterday's Crist-Rubio numbers (which received far more attention, I might add), suggest a very different story indeed (full results pdf here). In a head to head matchup, Rubio's lead over Meek is only 44 to 39, while in a potential three-way matchup, with Crist running as an independent, Rubio garners 34% to Crist's 27% and Meek's 25%.

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Thursday February 05, 2009 · 5:01 PM PST

2009/02/05 · 17:01

Yesterday we watched the barrage of GOP attempts to derail or otherwise stymie HR-1, the Stimulus bill, go down one after another after another. We witnessed, among other things, that many of these amendments were defeated by more than 60 votes, and that not only did suspect Democrats (Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu) fall in line, but several of the so-called moderate Republicans were voting with the Dems more often than not (Snowe, Collins, Specter, sometimes Voinovich or Lugar).

They're still gabbing away (C-SPAN2 feed can be found here), but several votes are in, and once again the Republicans are going nowhere fast. Importantly, several amendments that would have essentially substituted the entire bill have been rejected with authority.

The list of amendments on which roll call votes have been called can, again, be found here.

You can see a list of the amendments as a whole, including those still pending, here.

Scorecard so far on the flip.

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Wednesday February 04, 2009 · 6:16 PM PST

2009/02/04 · 18:16

[Cross-posted at Congress Matters]

I share the frustration of many in the liberaloblogerospherico concerning how things are progressing with the stimulus, how we still[!] see more Republicans on our teevees and wonder whether our Democratic congressional leaders will manage to fail us, again, somehow.

But not all of the news is bad, take heart! It's fun to watch them posted, as the Republican amendments offered today to teh stimulus get rejected one after another after another [edit: those subject to a roll-call vote, that is]. So far they're 0 for 7. [Update: Now 0 for 8] Most importantly, there appears to be a comfortable 60+ vote consensus (including, for various amendments, Specter, Snowe, Collins, and/or Voinovich) for the core of the stimulus bill, poorly written WaPo stories to the contrary:

http://www.senate.gov/...

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Happy Blogiversary, Atrios!

Happy 40th B-Day Atrios

Vaclav Havel's Greengrocer

PA-Sen Poll Tells US: GOTFV

Speaking out against Hate in Gainesville

FL-Gov: New Ras Poll Shows Virtual Tie

AK Sen: Miller 50, McAdams 44

ACTION: Tell Crist to Veto SB6

Crist "Fully Supports" AG Lawsuit against HCR

PPP puts Meek only 5 behind Rubio (44-39)

Today's Stimulus Amendments: GOP Substitutes Going Nowhere Fast

Repub Senate Stimulus Amendments: Rejected, Rejected, Rejected