Just like black walnut ice cream, Herman Cain tastes good all the time. (stares at ILX and takes a thoughtful drag on his cigarette).
lol, herman cain.
pretty soon people will be able to set up a “6-degrees-of-herman-cain” game, based on your proximity to some woman, somewhere, who has been harassed or dated the man whose been screaming “999” into your television set.
I don’t know...effective, but too early, looks panicky. And in a poor economy, I think the flip-flop strategy will cause massive shrugging. I also suspect, as unfair as it may be, that for a number of voters, Democratic flip-flopper (i.e., Kerry) = weak, spineless, but Republican flip-flopper = pragmatic, has no choice but to head-fake all the wingnuts.
OK, we need a primary thread in this here sandbox.
seriously, i don’t think it’s a very effective ad. there are much better clips to highlight romney’s flip-flopping, and might tighter — and tougher — ways to go about it. i think perry’s team did a very good job with their first ad, for instance.
but of course, obama has a top-flight campaign organization. this leads me to believe that they’re “holding their powder,” and will hammer romney with the better stuff in the general election.
IF ROMNEY IS THE NOMINEE
man that’s begging for some homophotoshopping
<i>and much tighter — and tougher — ways to go about it.</i>
Agree with that. I think the biggest problem with the spot is that it’s too jokey—the tone’s all wrong.
Hertzberg’s elegy to Barney Frank’s house career.
...His press conference today, announcing his decision, was a fairly typical performance. He talked in his inimitable manner: fast, deadpan-humorous, lucid, sharp, delivering zingers in that gravelly voice of his, with its characteristic glottal L’s and fugitive R’s. He is a pleasure to listen to. Frank is frank. He does not bore. He does not condescend. He makes the complicated comprehensible. Going out, he’s as outgoing as he was coming in.
Frank may not have been simon-pure, but he was usually living in one of the better neighborhoods of politics and he was a pleasure to hear speak.
yup
In many ways you can judge him by the quality of his enemies.
Reviewing Justice Kagan’s performances so far.
Lithwick also agrees with “most legal” experts that SCOTUS will uphold the AHCA by “ a 6–3 or a 7–2 margin.”
In many ways you can judge him by the quality of his enemies.
Nope. Wouldn’t be all that hated if not gay. In the pocket of Wall St.
Frum’s article in NYMag is pretty interesting: When Did the GOP Lose Touch With Reality?
Much more honest than Chait’s.
yeah, that frum piece was good.
In the aughts, Republicans held more power for longer than at any time since the twenties, yet the result was the weakest and least broadly shared economic expansion since World War II, followed by an economic crash and prolonged slump.
really can’t beat this for a damning indictment of the GOP
that was barney frank’s fault.
smile when you say that, mate
i am smiling.
obama shops at independent bookstore (albeit one that likely only exists because of its restaurant).
if he hadn’t sold out, he’d have gone to politics and prose.
(fwiw bill clinton used to shop at borders)
Obama’s daughters Sasha and Malia picked up picture book Everyone Poops
aaaaaaahahahahahaha, right on
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama_Republican
Support for Obama from writers afflicted with conservatism
obv belongs in the amazing wiki facts thread but i don’t think there’s a sandbox version
I always get the impression that Ruth Marcus gets her news from CNN Headlines and then writes her pieces in one quick draft just before they are due.
It’s a shame her editor doesn’t shoot her every time.
marcus does sound “alarmingly crotchety here,” and utterly wrong. attempting to invoke the limited rights of schools to restrain free-speech is utterly absurd in this instance. and, while i expect civility and propriety in my own 10 year-old daughter, i think it’s good to see a teenager motivated enough to tweet about politics at all (even tho it would be better for her to actually discuss, or even participate in, politics).
“Just made mean comments at ruth marcs and told her she sucked, in person. #sheblowsalot.”
i would have spelled “marcus” correctly and in full, but i was just over the 140 character limit.
daniel otm
...and the term “potty-mouthed” is a nauseatingly priggish one, anyway, esp. in reference to two words mild enough to be used on US broadcast TV.
Reviewing Justice Kagan’s performances so far.
Lithwick also agrees with “most legal” experts that SCOTUS will uphold the AHCA by “ a 6–3 or a 7–2 margin.”
― Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, November 29, 2011 4:30 PM (2 days ago)
i usually like lithwick but this kind of dumbed down, isn’t it? there’s not much analysis of whether kagan’s style is, like, worth it, or effective. why is befriending conservative justices a plus, exactly? lithwick herself quotes that these are the “big leagues” and that kind of buttering up won’t work here. and whom is she writing to with the second-person narrative? why is that a good thing? why is it necessary to make it easier for ME to read her opinions? the people actually making use of them are jurists and academics, not laypeople like us.
the pertinent cold water, at any rate:
But while Kagan is assuredly a liberal, and likely also a fan of the health-reform law, a close read of her tenure at the Supreme Court suggests that she is in fact the opposite of a progressive zealot. By the end of Kagan’s first term, conservatives like former Bush solicitor general Paul Clement (who will likely argue against the health-care law this coming spring) and Chief Justice John Roberts were giving Kagan high marks as a new justice precisely because she wasn’t a frothing ideologue. The pre-confirmation caricatures of her as a self-serving careerist and party hack are not borne out by her conduct at oral argument, her writing, and her interactions with her colleagues. In fact, if her first term and a half is any indication, she may well madden as many staunch liberals as conservatives in the coming years.
can I just
That’s some Double Impact special effect going on there, right?
whoa, does van damme have a twin brother or something? that’s amazing!!
i usually like lithwick but this kind of dumbed down, isn’t it? there’s not much analysis of whether kagan’s style is, like, worth it, or effective. why is befriending conservative justices a plus, exactly?
I frowned at this too. I hadn’t expected Lithwick to espouse the Beltway dictum that shitting on your own side guarantees immortality.
More on that bill. I wonder whether this is more shadowplay: the Senate Dems get to look like robust warriors to voters, while an Obama veto threat burnishes his liberal cred.
who were the dems who voted to defeat that amendment?
the official roll call is here:
http://store.barackobama.com/accessories/dog-bandana.html
has timellison found the sandbox?
this could be awesome: http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2011/12/us_supreme_court_to_review_iss.html
Lindsey Graham is a repulsive piece of shit:
One of the proponents of making no exceptions for Americans, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said it would be “crazy” to exempt Qaeda suspects who are Americans and are arrested inside the country from battlefield-style detention. He argued that, to stop other attacks, they must be interrogated without the protections of the civilian criminal justice system.
Citizens who are suspected of joining Al Qaeda are opening themselves up “to imprisonment and death,” Mr. Graham said, adding, “And when they say, ‘I want my lawyer,’ you tell them: ‘Shut up. You don’t get a lawyer. You are an enemy combatant, and we are going to talk to you about why you joined Al Qaeda.
innocent until proven gu...what was it again? oh well!
Shut up!
-but I believe I’m entitled to a lawye-
this really isn’t politics, but it’s notable that the newest unemployment figures are much better. it’s still a bad picture — 8.6% unemployment — but it’s trending in the right direction, and since there’s no shortage of coverage when the news is bad, it should be noted when the news is good.
also: what would the unemployment rate be today if the public-sector wasn’t shedding jobs as the impact of stimulus-funds wear off?
xpost to self
SHUT UP!
JohnFugelsang — The US added 120,000 last month, or 870,000 more jobs than George W Bush’s last month in office....
be careful not to cherry pick data though—criticizing others when they do it (e.g., climate change deniers) means you have to be extra cautious not to do it yourself!
also not to be all negative nancy on the ‘improving’ unemployment rate, but isn’t a lot of that driven by the peculiar way we calculate unemployment? as nyt says: “The jobless rate fell partly because more workers got jobs, but also because about 315,000 workers dropped out of the labor force, and the jobless rate counts only people who are actively looking for work. Even so, the country still has a backlog of more than 13 million unemployed workers, whose periods of unemployment averaged an all-time high of 40.9 weeks.”
anyway, 8.6% is better than 9.6%
but your point is right. that’s why i mentioned, in the initial post, that the overall picture still isn’t good. not a counter to “cherry-picking,” per se, but an acknowledgement that the data-points i mention aren’t conversation-ending.
this really isn’t politics, but it’s notable that the newest unemployment figures are much better. it’s still a bad picture — 8.6% unemployment — but it’s trending in the right direction, and since there’s no shortage of coverage when the news is bad, it should be noted when the news is good.
Lots of people have stopped looking for jobs too.
cross post
that’s very true. in fact, analysts figure the rate will climb again next month, because drop-outs will again begin looking for jobs.
but still, it’s positive news.
On a more positive note, the Labor Department revised upward the job growth in September and October by 72,000 jobs. Job creation in the last three months thus averaged 143,000 a month. That’s almost double the monthly average from May to August, but even at that pace, the unemployment rate won’t come down fast anytime soon.
The latest jobs report comes on the heels of other data suggesting a strengthening of the economy. Consumer spending, manufacturing and exports, and business investment and confidence all have edged higher since summer — despite significant concerns about the European debt crisis, the still-moribund American housing market, government cutbacks and political paralysis in Washington.
Other indicators also show hints of improvement in the job market. The National Federation of Independent Business, a lobbying group for small firms, said its survey of members in November showed that the average number of workers per firm rose and that plans to create new jobs nearly doubled.
“Overall, the employment indicators delivered a significant positive signal, still at weak levels but a meaningful movement forward,” said William Dunkelberg, the group’s chief economist.
LAT.
and here’s the answer to my earlier question
amsteinhp Sam Stein — per @jonathanweisman, there has been 759,000 govt jobs lost since Nov 2010. That’s 2,079 jobs lost every day over a year
that’s a lot of jobs. haven’t seen figures on what the unemployment rate would be if we hadn’t lost those jobs.
I see three Facebook pals have already posted “Unemployment down! YES WE CAN!” type updates.
robot see, robot do
Republicans in the Senate rejected both the Democrat and Republican proposals on extending the payroll tax cut
zraklein Ezra Klein — Bad news deep in the jobs report: most sectors down. The boost came from retail sales, so it might just be temp. holiday hiring.
In this Greenwald piece on the military detention bill, I was most struck by the Senate Dems’ “rotating villain” tactic:
http://www.salon.com/2011/12/01/congress_endorsing_military_detention_a_new_aumf/singleton/
there’s no sandbox New Yorker thread but george packer at the end of his (great) profile of libertarian billionaire peter thiel goes in on his subject
Yes, really enjoyed that piece.
Packer’s been v. good lately — see also his O.W.S. piece this week.
the end is almost fitzgeraldesque, honestly
Oh, and here he does a neat little compare-contrast of the two articles.
K3vin, can I ask you a question? What are you doing going to school for pharmacology? Are you just savvier than the rest of us aimless liberal-arts grads?
the end is almost fitzgeraldesque, honestly
― k3vin k., Friday, December 2, 2011 6:21 PM (1 minute ago
now that i think of it, the tone of the piece owes even more to ‘gatsby’ than i realized: his sketches of his characters are such that we can’t help but like them even though we recognize the abject emptiness and meaninglessness of their pursuits, but in the final few paragraphs he absolutely stomps on everything they stand for with some memorable prose
K3vin, can I ask you a question? What are you doing going to school for pharmacology? Are you just savvier than the rest of us aimless liberal-arts grads?
― dyao think i’m sexy (jaymc), Friday, December 2, 2011 6:23 PM (4 minutes ago)
ha, is this a compliment? i have very little idea what i want to do with my life and probably wish i was in med school instead tbh
& just for the sake of the .xls it’s pharmacy, not pharmacology; i’ll receive a professional doctorate rather than a research doctorate
I guess I just think of you as a pretty sharp and passionate guy when it comes to politics, music, and writing, so it’s weird to me that you’re enrolled in the professional sciences. Not that you can’t be genuinely interested in all of it, but I don’t know many people for whom that’s the case, so I wondered if maybe the pharmacy degree was a way of assuring yourself a reliable income.
Sorry if that’s getting too personal or whatever.
k3vin, go to law school.
law is a spiritually fulfilling career.
tbh I prefer k3vin making real money as a pharmacist than as a liberal arts major. The world needs more literate pharmacists and doctors.
I guess I just think of you as a pretty sharp and passionate guy when it comes to politics, music, and writing, so it’s weird to me that you’re enrolled in the professional sciences. Not that you can’t be genuinely interested in all of it, but I don’t know many people for whom that’s the case, so I wondered if maybe the pharmacy degree was a way of assuring yourself a reliable income.
― dyao think i’m sexy (jaymc), Friday, December 2, 2011 6:39 PM (21 minutes ago)
Sorry if that’s getting too personal or whatever.
― dyao think i’m sexy (jaymc), Friday, December 2, 2011 6:45 PM (15 minutes ago)
not at all, and i’m very flattered. it’s pretty safe to say that i wanted/want to be a healthcare professional of some sort, though i find myself more drawn to the public health side of things as i’ve progressed through school. i do wish more of my classmates cared/made time for stuff like literature and public policy (avoiding the word ‘politics’ but the two inevitably go hand in hand) but i do have a few friends there i can shoot the shit with about that kind of stuff, and that’s also what i have ilx for. (coincidentally i was just bemoaning this in an email last night to a friend, one of the the smartest people i know, who works as a pharmacist at a refugee clinic in thailand. hopefully i’ll work there temporarily after i graduate as well.) i have taken the occasional undergrad english class to force myself to leisure read and keep my writing skills somewhat sharp, which i’ve enjoyed doing.
anyway i’m much younger than most of the people who post here regularly and say more than my fair share of dumb things, and consider most of the regular posters here much smarter than me. ilx has made me think about things much differently for sure. don’t let the confidence i can affect at times deceive you, ha
sorry for derail
You’re one of my favorite posters.
alfred that means a lot, and the respect is reciprocated
consider most of the regular posters here much smarter than me.
you may consider it that way, but it’s not so.
you guys are too kind
science sucks
i believe you’re looking for the GOP thread!
i believe you’re looking for the GOP thread!
― k3vin k., Friday, December 2, 2011 6:48 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark
:)
I like k3vin k too!
guys i’m not on a ledge or anything!
becoming a pharmacist is a defensible choice and an excellent career. you can remain a politics/music nerd too!
yes but all pharmacists are far-right republicans.
that is always 100% true in all cases, because my one pharmacist friend is one of those and owns a large gun
healthcare professionals are scum
actually he’s not far right, but his gun is p big
proof.
Med school is rad. Especially 4th year of med school. All I have done this week is interviews and hangin’ out in Midwestern hotel rooms (some of which are comped).
Also during an interview today I got asked the “if you could change one thing about medicine, what would it be” question, and I was feelin’ a lil political and said “I would like to get for-profit corporations out of all sectors of medicine.” It seemed to be well-received, even!