Democrats
mikethemadbiologist | August 3, 2007Once again, Michigan congressman John Dingell has decided to side with Detroit automakers who continue to resist entering the 21st century. The House has scrapped legislation that would raise fuel efficiency standards...to those less than Europe and Japan:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, decided not to allow a vote on an amendment requiring cars and light trucks sold in the United States to achieve a fleet average of 35 miles per gallon by 2019. The measure, similar to one the Senate passed in June, drew fierce opposition from automakers and dealers, the United Automobile…
mikethemadbiologist | July 22, 2007The Democrats aren't doing any better funding stem cell research--or any other research. Empty pockets at the Next Hurrah writes:
http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/07/will-democrats…
Inflation in the life sciences this year is estimated at 3.7%; thus, Congress's increase [of 2.8%] is yet another year of real-dollar budget cuts for NIH. Even worse, the way they're allocating the money, most NIH institutes would see an increase of less than 2.5% under the Senate plan and less than 1.7% under the House plan, increases well below the level of inflation (Facts and figures on…
mikethemadbiologist | July 20, 2007By way of Brad Delong, I stumbled across this column by Washington Post editor Ruth Marcus calling for merit pay for teachers. Centrist Democrats, particularly those who suffer from a touch of Compulsive Centrist Disorder, have been pushing this since the early 80s. And it makes no sense to me.
When I think about science education, these are the areas that I think need dramatic improvement:
1) Fully equipped science laboratories. You actually have to do some science occasionally.
2) Funding for the occasional trip to a museum, nature preserve, or science lab.
3) Smaller class sizes.…
mikethemadbiologist | July 19, 2007It's bad enough when the mainstream media engages in ersatz psychology and semiotics. It's even worse when this pseudoanalysis has a bias--it's like Colbert's truthiness, except that it's not funny (italics mine):
Consider, then, the cheesesteak.
While running for president, John Kerry ordered a cheesesteak with Swiss cheese. The sane response to that fact is, of course, "who cares?" The media response was to mock Kerry for ordering the "wrong" cheese. Supposedly, it reinforced his "elitist" image. Kerry's cheesesteak order continues to draw media attention years later.
During that same…
mikethemadbiologist | July 14, 2007digby writes what I've often claimed around here--'people of faith' who criticize Democrats for not embracing 'faith' really want Democrats to embrace theopolitical conservatism:
The religious folk who vote GOP on the basis of religion are never going to vote for Democrats unless they become social conservatives. That's the formula and that's what the liberal religious lobby is really pushing. I just wish they'd be honest about it.
Amen, sister digby.
(now go read the whole thing).
mikethemadbiologist | July 7, 2007Susan Madrak is dead on target: if the rightwing is willing to give its wingnuts cushy jobs (also known as 'wingnut welfare'), why can't the left provide its own moonbat welfare for leftwing moonbats? As Madrak writes:
Someone from either the Democratic party or some liberal organization showed up a few years back at the Philadelphia chapter of Drinking Liberally to ask the question, "What do bloggers want? How can we help?" She had, of course, already answered the question: Free Lexis-Nexis access! One account to be shared by I don't know how many bloggers!
I looked at her. I cleared my…
mikethemadbiologist | July 6, 2007...and the Mad Biologist attempts to give a serious answer. In response to this post about adopting a French-like healthcare system, a reader writes:
I know this may sound contradictory to many of you, but I am a staunch Republican who has always believed in the need for universal health care in our country. I am so glad that Michael Moore and all of the Democratic candidates for President in 2008 are raising the level of discussion once more about this need.
I would very much like to join a group of fellow Republicans who support the need for univeral[sic] health care, however, I have been…
mikethemadbiologist | July 6, 2007Over at Hullabaloo, I found this great list of suggested slogans for congressional Democrats:
Congressional Democrats:
"We'd stand up for you, but it didn't focus group well."
Congressional Democrats:
"We'd stand up for you, but they'd call us bad names."
Congressional Democrats:
"If we won't stand up to Bush, what makes you think we'd ever stand up for you?"
Congressional Democrats:
"If we won't stand up for the Constitution, what makes you think we'd ever stand up for you?"
Congressional Democrats:
"Sure we're cowards, but you don't have any other choice."
Congressional Democrats:
"We…
mikethemadbiologist | July 3, 2007...and are you in any way, shape, or form surprised? Has anything in the last six years suggested to anyone in the Coalition of the Sane that the Bush/Cheney Administration has any sense of shame or propriety? Of course not.
It should be clear that this administration will do anything and everything it can get away with. Bush now appears to have 'accepted' his 28% approval ratings, and won't try to do anything to raise them.
The group that I'm truly disappointed in is the Democrats. They still seem to think that if they point out El Jefe Maximo's outrageous and illegal behavior that the…
mikethemadbiologist | June 24, 2007Scott LeMieux exposes the illogic of Melinda Henneberger's NY Times op-ed about abortion and Democrats. What I can't figure out is what does Henneberger want?
Once again, we have a Democratic concern troll who fails to see even the basic contours of the landscape:
Do you want abortion to be legal and safe, or illegal and unsafe?
That is the issue. Unfortunately, there is no real compromise to be had*, and even if there were, it wouldn't matter to these 'moderate' [*cough*bullshit*cough*] voters. Sympathetic noises or compromises will not satisfy those voters Henneberger describes as…
mikethemadbiologist | June 19, 2007Over at MyDD.com, there's some consternation about how a generic Democrat beats a generic Republican in opinion polls, but named Democrats do poorly against named Republicans. As you might imagine, everyone is arguing that this is the reason why his or her electoral strategy MUST BE FOLLOWED. I think the explanation is pretty straightforward:
The more voters know about a particular candidate, the less they like that candidate.
I'm serious; this isn't snark. Any time that a political party is identified with controlling the Congress by more than 64 percent of the voting public, that party…
mikethemadbiologist | June 11, 2007I used to think that Democratic politicians were trying to be too clever by half, and consequently screwed things up. Then I started to think that many are actually quite conservative, so they're just reverting to form--most of them don't have a tiny liberal inside of them, struggling to be free. After reading this exchange with a Democratic canvasser (something I used to do), I think the party has been taken over (or at least seriously infiltrated) by fucking morons (italics mine):
When I explained my stance and rationale [for not donating to the national party] to the woman on the phone,…
mikethemadbiologist | June 10, 2007I'm usually loathe to rip into a top-notch economist like Brad DeLong, especially when he titles his post "An Unrealistic, Impracticle, Utopian Plan for Dealing with the Health Care Opportunity." But several things bothered me about that post.
What I've never understood about the entire healthcare debate is the need to invent completely new plans. My take on this is ultimately pragmatic: find a system that provides universal coverage and good healthcare and institute it. Much of Europe--including the dreaded French--have very good healthcare. Translate the damn documentation, slap a big…
mikethemadbiologist | June 8, 2007And no, it's not faith. It's called religion. That aside, there's an interesting internet exchange among Eric Sapp, Rabbi Andy Bachman, and Jameson Foser about the role of religion in the Democratic Party. I found it interesting that the only ordained participant was the most skittish about the embrace of 'faith' (italics mine):
In watching the 3 leading Democratic candidates debate their views on religion, I had two conflicting impressions.
One, it's a good thing that, in response to the ascendancy of the Religious Right in American politics, the Progressive religious community is being…
mikethemadbiologist | May 31, 2007Matt Stoller makes a very interesting observation about Senator Obama, although I think it could apply to most of the presidential candidates in both parties. Stoller writes:
But I think a lot of this kind of nonsense has to do with a basic lack of responsibility among citizens. Last week, I spoke to a friend who graduated from Harvard Law and just got done clerking for a high level judge. He's smart and highly credentialled, and he supports Obama because he thinks Obama doesn't believe in American exceptionalism and will decolonize our foreign policy. I walked him through the rhetoric…
mikethemadbiologist | May 26, 2007I go away for a meeting, and Congress goes and holds a vote about the Iraq War. Like some, I'm disgusted by the outcome, but I think many are blaming the wrong people. To paraphrase Pogo, the enemy is us. Or least part of us.
I'm not referring to the Mouth Breathing wing of the Republican Party (which is currently ascendant). One does not negotiate or convince authoritarians: empathy and abstraction are not their strong suit. The mindless Uruk-Hai will always oppose any thing deemed as 'surrender'--until their leaders point their lizard brains at something else.
No, the group I'm…
mikethemadbiologist | May 21, 2007Actually, I'm not just mad at the pundit, but also at Senator Obama: he knows his position is intellectually dishonest.
By way of Ezra Klein, I came across a discussion at Hotline about this interview with Senator Obama:
For the first time as a presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, posed a question about entitlement reform, said that "everything was on the table," except for private accounts, and in doing so, because the first top-tier Democratic presidential candidate to acknowledge that Social Security deficits could not, and would not, be solved without pain.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You've…
mikethemadbiologist | May 15, 2007As regular readers of this blog* know, I'm not particularly fond of the 'progressive' netroots, largely because I don't know what they stand for, and what little I do know doesn't strike me as particularly compelling. Over at MaxSpeak, there's an excellent take on the netroots, which includes some points I hadn't considered. Let's turn it over to Max (italics mine; I've added a relevant link to me):
1. The liberal netroots are soft on Democrats in every issue area except Iraq.
2. The liberal netroots are tough on Iraq, but narrow in their criticisms, since fundamentally the liberal…
mikethemadbiologist | May 13, 2007Pundits discuss Democratic candidates
The mainstream media has a double standard for Democratic candidates. INCONCEIVABLE!
Jameson Foser writes (italics mine):
Cavuto suggests it's hypocritical for Edwards, a wealthy man, to want to eradicate poverty. That is essentially what Beck and Cafferty and Tucker said, too. And it's what The Washington Post's Bill Hamilton suggested when he justified front-page treatment for the article about Edwards' house sale by pointing out that it involved a "presidential candidate [who] just happens to be a millionaire who is basing his campaign on a populist…
mikethemadbiologist | May 8, 2007Senator Obama earned a lot of points in my book today because he took the leadership of the U.S. auto companies to task for being such retrograde, anti-progress morons. From the NY Times (italics mine):
In a speech that hit hard at the failings of Detroit automakers, Mr. Obama, a Democratic presidential candidate, said Japanese companies had done far better than their Detroit counterparts to develop energy efficient vehicles....
"For years, while foreign competitors were investing in more fuel-efficient technology for their vehicles, American automakers were spending their time investing in…