March 2012
111 posts
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Current TV fires Keith Olbermann, replaces him... →
Spitzer is back, baby!
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“Youth should be the only issue of the 2012 election, because all the subsidiary...”
– Stephen Marche, The War Against Youth
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The War Against Youth: Young People in the... →
Twenty-five years ago young Americans had a chance.
In 1984, American breadwinners who were sixty-five and over made ten times as much as those under thirty-five. The year Obama took office, older Americans made almost forty-seven times as much as the younger generation.
Only 58 percent of Boomers have more than $25,000 put aside for retirement, so the rest will either starve or the government...
“I’ve never understood why regulating by making people go buy something is...”
– Former Reagan Solicitor General Charles Fried.
Amen.
(via letterstomycountry)
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Funeral director: No signs of injury on Trayvon... →
The defense of George Zimmerman rests on a violent fight that he said occurred before he fired the shot that killed Trayvon Martin.
Trayvon Martin was buried in Miami with a gunshot wound to his chest. But otherwise, according to Richard Kurtz, the funeral director who prepared Martin for burial, his body showed no injuries.
“We could see no physical signs like there had been a scuffle...
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Young Obama Supporters Becoming Apathetic →
Obama enjoyed a wave of youth support in his run to the presidency, winning 66 percent of voters aged 18-to-29 in the race against Republican Senator John McCain. Twenty-two million young voters cast ballots, making up about 18 percent of the electorate — two million more than in 2004, according to exit polls and the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. Today...
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Michael Bloomberg: Federal Budgets and Class... →
I think the Bush tax cuts should expire for all Americans—you, me, everyone—as part of a long-term plan to rein in the deficit. We are all in this together.
The president asserts that 98% of Americans do not need to pay more in taxes, that we just need those earning more than $1 million to pay a minimum of 30% in federal income taxes. But according to Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation,...
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“As the two parties sketch out their general-election campaign platforms, both...”
– Michael Bloomberg
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“Justice requires guaranteed universal access to health care. Privatization...”
– Cardinal Bertone, Secretary of State to Pope Benedict XVI
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Pope, church leaders call for guaranteed health... →
Using Republican logic, anyone against Obamacare is now clearly engaged in a war against religion. In order to be “genuinely Catholic,” as Newt Gingrich put it, all Catholic institutions must be free to support universal health care.
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Study: Conservatives' Trust of Science Hits All... →
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Cheney's Million Dollar Heart Stirs Health Care... →
Fortunately for Cheney, the cost of his health care was covered by taxpayers. In addition to health insurance provided through the government for Cheney’s years of service, Cheney, like millions of other Americans was eligible for Medicare benefits when he turned 65. In most cases, if you are retired and have Medicare, as well as health plan coverage from a former employer, Medicare pays first....
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“This case isn’t ultimately about the law—it is about politics. The four...”
– John Cassidy
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Iran agrees to reopen nuclear talks with world... →
The major nations are keen to get Iran to enter talks on curbing its uranium enrichment program, which the West suspects is aimed at developing a nuclear weapons capability but Tehran says is peaceful.
Western officials in particular are hoping the increasingly harsh sanctions they have imposed on the major oil producer in the last few months will make it more willing to compromise in the...
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The Orwell Prize - 2012 Long List →
Two of my favorite books from this year made the cut: Arguably by Christopher Hitchens and The Price of Civilization by Jeffrey Sachs. I’m also eager to read Douglas Murray’s Bloody Sunday.
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“This was a train wreck for the Obama administration. This law looks like...”
– Jeffrey Toobin, CNN’s legal correspondent
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Olympia Snowe: I haven't talked to Obama in nearly... →
[In] an interview with ABC’s Senior Political Correspondent Jonathan Karl, Snowe makes a remarkable revelation: She hasn’t spoken to President Obama in nearly two years.
Snowe said that if she had to grade the President on his willingness to work with Republicans, he would “be close to failing on that point.” In fact, Snowe, who was first elected to Congress in 1976,...
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“The ‘stand the ground,’ as they’re called, laws are opposed by...”
– Michael Bloomberg
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Everything you need to know about health reform's... →
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“Gingrich is clearly in the last throes of his political career. And, you know,...”
– David Plouffe, President Obama’s senior advisor
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NYPD Spied on Lawful, Left-Wing Political Groups →
Undercover NYPD officers attended meetings of liberal political organizations and kept intelligence files on activists who planned protests around the country, according to interviews and documents that show how police have used counterterrorism tactics to monitor even lawful activities.
The infiltration echoes the tactics the NYPD used in the run-up to New York’s 2004 Republican National...
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“Every time you see someone sticking up a 7-11, the kid is wearing a hoodie.
You have to recognize that this whole stylizing yourself as a ‘gangsta’…you’re going to be a gangsta wannabe? Well people are going to perceive you as a menace.”
- Geraldo Rivera
Anyone think Zimmerman would have shot this menacing gangster?
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Obama nominates Jim Yong Kim for World Bank
President Barack Obama nominated Dartmouth College president and global health expert Jim Yong Kim to lead the World Bank, an unconventional pick that could help to quell criticism in the developing world over the U.S. stranglehold on the international organization’s top post.
Obama said the Korean-born Kim’s breadth of experience on development issues made him the ideal candidate to...
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“The U.S. has 760 prisoners per 100,000 citizens. That’s not just many more than...”
– Fareed Zakaria
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Michael Bloomberg's charity spending hundreds of... →
shortformblog:
$220 million from Bloomberg to fight ills of smoking source
» That brings the grand total to $600 million: Michael Bloomberg’s spent hundreds of millions to fight smoking globally through his charitable foundation. The NYC mayor, who calls tobacco ”a scourge all over the world,” plans to use the money to fund legal challenges against smoking in low-and-moderate-income countries...
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Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner Endorses... →
The primary system we use today borders on the absurd. It starts off in Iowa, a state with less than 1% of the nation’s population. The caucuses there are nonbinding and, in the case of the Democrats, don’t even use secret ballots. One week later, the attention shifts to New Hampshire, a state with less than one-half of 1% of all Americans, where the first primary is held.
The...
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“We do not have nuclear weapons and we will not build them but in the face of...”
– Ayatollah Khamenei
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The End of Op-Ed Columnists →
With the proliferation of news sites and blogs, anyone can access the opinions of millions of commentators, some of whom are as good or better at explaining, edifying, entertaining, and persuading than the lions of the op-ed page.
So does the op-ed columnist have a future?
It’s possible that the decline of newspapers will mean the decline of the superstar columnist, but it may be more...
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Israeli national-security officials are... →
A widely held assumption about a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities is that it would spur Iranian citizens — many of whom appear to despise their rulers — to rally around the regime. But Netanyahu, I’m told, believes a successful raid could unclothe the emperor, emboldening Iran’s citizens to overthrow the regime (as they tried to do, unsuccessfully, in 2009).
It’s one of...
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“Twenty years ago, Switzerland had a system very similar to America’s - private...”
– Fareed Zakaria
Like I said, universal health care has worked in many countries for decades. The evidence is overwhelming.
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New poll shows Americans favor diplomacy over war...
shortformblog:
69% of Americans prefer a diplomatic approach instead of an Israeli attack on Iran, according to a new poll from the University of Maryland
38% of Republicans polled favor military action by the Israeli government, a percentage likely to surprise experts and policymakers
17% of Democrats and independents polled agreed with their Republican counterparts, preferring military...
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“One of my predecessors, President Rutherford B. Hayes, reportedly said about the...”
– Barack Obama
Update from NYmag: In fact…Hayes was not only the first president to have a telephone in the White House, but he was also the first to use the typewriter, and he had Thomas Edison come to the White House to demonstrate the phonograph.
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“Anguish over the prospect of an Iranian nuclear weapon is understandable. It...”
– Fareed Zakaria
jgreendc asked: I seriously can't see the name of your blog without thinking of Curb.
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“Strikes on Iran would probably delay its program a few years while driving up...”
– Fareed Zakaria
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