Today, I joined the Libertarian Party. The screenshot of my signup can be found above. For the first time since 1984, I no longer identify as a Republican. Making this decision was wrenching, much like saying goodbye to an old friend who has been twisted and perverted into something and someone unrecognizable. The 1980 presidential …
In which Venezuela Achieves a Dubious Milestone
Q: What do toilet paper and Venezuelan currency have in common? A: Absolutely nothing, as toilet paper is more valuable than is Venezuelan currency. No, seriously. And of course, toilet paper is hard to find in Venezuela. Thank goodness that the Venezuelan government is taking the responsible approach to this economic mess. Just kidding! It actually …
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On Subjects Rachel Maddow Won’t Touch with a Ten-Foot Pole
I remember when Rachel Maddow of MSNBC wrote this opinion piece, informing us that the administration of George W. Bush did nothing to cultivate a deep bench of Republican leadership prospects. As far as Maddow was concerned . . . well . . . let's let her words speak for themselves: In the eight years …
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Quote of the Day
Mr Krugman thus implied that the British government—deliberately or mistakenly—had engineered measly growth at the beginning of its term, thus making it easier for the economy to roar back as the election approached. That would seem to ascribe to the coalition an unrealistic level of strategic wizardry and general deviousness, beyond even that possessed by …
There Was Never Any “Team of Rivals” in the Obama Administration
Richard Holbrooke was always one of my favorite Democrats--brilliant, dynamic, a fascinating personality, and a diplomat with actual, substantive accomplishments to his name (unlike a certain former secretary of state who is currently trying to convince us that she should be the next president of the United States). If life were fair, Holbrooke would have …
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Jeb Bush Doesn’t Have an Aura of Inevitability. And that’s Fine.
Nicholas Confessore--who in the past, has written for non-right wing rags like Salon, Washington Monthly, and The American Prospect, and who therefore may not be the most unbiased soul in the world when it comes to writing about Republicans--co-authored this piece along with Maggie Haberman in which we are breathlessly informed that not all Republicans are …
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The Decline and Fall of American Foreign Policy
American foreign policy is--to put matters bluntly--in free-fall. The United States is significantly less able to influence events around the world, it is not trusted or respected by allies, and it has undermined its negotiating position with Iran in the nuclear talks by making it abundantly clear that it is desperate for a deal. If …
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Foreign Policy Question of the Day
Why don't we talk about the chaos in Libya as much as we talk about the chaos in Iraq? This time it was the guards from an Austrian-run gas facility in Libya’s Saharan southwest. They were shown beheaded in a series of images posted to social media on March 8. A few weeks earlier it …
Social Media: Not the Place to Go for Sober-Headed Legal Analysis
There has been a lot of debate about the letter sent by 47 Republican senators to the Iranian regime regarding the negotiations over nuclear energy use--likely for weapons--by Iran. I happen to think that sending the letter was a bad idea; foreign policy has been found to be the province of the executive branch, with …
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Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Know the First Rule of Holes
The former secretary of state and putative next president of the United States held a press conference today to explain that thing about her e-mails. It . . . um . . . didn't go well. Clinton now admits that yeah, maybe it would have been a good idea to use two e-mail accounts; one for …
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