Yesterday I wrote about the notion of ”grand bargain” talks that the U.S. could initiate toward Iran. If Reuters is reporting correctly this morning, such talks seem unlikely. Then again, it’s hard to tell if Reuters is reporting correctly, because the whole article about Gates’ comments is about the size of this post. Not sure [...]
Entries from February 8th, 2010
Obama Should Go Around Shelby, Loudly
February 7th, 2010 · No Comments · Politics
Richard Shelby has, essentially, committed an act of terrorism against the U.S. government: the senator from Alabama has taken 70 hostages and will release them in exchange for an exorbitant ransom roughly $40 billion in government spending on defense contractors in Shelby’s home state.
Today, Matthew Yglesias cites Harold Meyerson and says hey, if the Republican [...]
Tags: Matthew Yglesias·Recess Appointments·Richard Shelby·Senate Holds
Denver Post: Eliminate Tax Breaks–Just Not Ours!
February 6th, 2010 · No Comments · Budget, Colorado
UPDATE: This post reveals a little bit of ignorance on my part of the breaks and exemptions available to both large and small businesses in Colorado. Also, the baker example is not very good, since, at least in Denver, we don’t pay sales tax on flour, sugar, or eggs. I maybe got a little off [...]
Tags: Big Business·Colorado Budget·Colorado House Bill 1190·Denver Post Editorial Board·Tax Exemptions
Toot Sweet
February 3rd, 2010 · No Comments · Politics
Yglesias:
In the real world, if your problem is that 41 Senators are playing procedural hardball and making it impossible to get things done, the solution is for 59 Senators to play hardball in return and stop letting the 41 stop things. Recognize that zero voters will punish you for engaging in procedural hardball and that [...]
Colorado Democrats Need to Show Some Leadership
February 3rd, 2010 · No Comments · Health care reform
Democrats are disheartened now, and with good reason. Any time a Democratic president has to remind a Democratic majority that they are indeed the majority, things can’t be going well.
And back home in Colorado, our elected officials are playing safe on the topic of health care reform, all except for Jared Polis, who, alongside a [...]
Tags: Betsy Markey·Colorado Democrats·Ed Perlmutter·Health care reform·John Salazar·Mark Udall·Michael Bennet
Outside Looking In
February 2nd, 2010 · No Comments · Politics
The BBC put up an interesting article the other day trying to understand the politics of the American electorate: “Why do people vote against their own interests?” To answer the question, political scientist and author David Runciman cites political scientist and author Thomas Frank (What’s the Matter with Kansas?).
[Frank] believes that the voters’ preference for [...]
Tags: David Runciman·Health care reform·Thomas Frank·US Politics
Slow the Hype Surrounding Abstinence-Only Study
February 1st, 2010 · No Comments · Sex education
Click over to the health section on the Google news website tonight and you’ll find–tucked among warnings about herbal remedies and articles celebrating fish oil–a sudden spike in headlines praising the merits of abstinence-only education in public schools.
Read through this article in the Washington Post, and eventually you’ll get to the numbers. The small study [...]
Tags: Abstinence-only education·John B. Jemmott III·Sex education
Hickenlooper Winning the Facebook Campaign
February 1st, 2010 · No Comments · 2010 Colorado Governor's Race
I was recently invited to join the fan page Hickenlooper for Governor!, which, as of today, boasts 8,586 fans. The page of John W. Hickenlooper, Government Official, sports another 9,007 fans, though we can safely assume a healthy bit of cross pollination between pages. (I’d be curious to learn how many individuals are double listed, [...]
Tags: 2010 Colorado Governor's Race·Facebook·John Hickenlooper·Scott McInnis
