I found this headline interesting, in the context of I do NOT recall ever seeing the like during the eight years of the administration of President George W. Bush: White House To Meet With Anti-Abortion Activists Next Week Did President George W. Bush ever meet with people who were in vocally public opposition to the policies and positions of his political base? I do not recall any… It is the responsibility...

Over at The Corner, Abigail Thernstrom has about had it with the white racist chorus: It’s a sad and dangerous moment in American politics. As Stanford law professor Richard Thompson Ford has written, “self-serving individuals, rabble-rousers, and political hacks use accusations of racism . . . to advance their own ends.” Those accusations provoke “resentment rather than thoughtful reaction.” Is...

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus’s plan has been released — and has set off a flurry of news articles, analysis and blog posts on the left, center and right, many of which take positions on the proposed plan. In response to a reader’s email about offering a compact roundup on the plan, here are some must reads/must views. The Christian Science Monitor offers this summary: Among...

This is utterly delicious:

From Public Policy Polling (sigh): We’ve been uncovering a remarkable level of anger toward Barack Obama in a lot of our recent polling so for New Jersey we decided to go a step further in determining how extreme some people’s feelings are about the President and asked respondents if they think he is the Anti-Christ. 8% said yes. 13% aren’t sure. Among Republicans 14% said yes and 15% weren’t...

Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

As my brother would say, What a tool. He really thought he could get Republican support if he only gave up enough, ceded enough ground, mollified and appeased just a little more. Good going, Max. You jettisoned the public option to get the support of so-called “moderate” Republicans, and now you’re left with nothing.

There comes a time in history when an adult enters the fray of uncivil discourse, shakes America by her broad shoulders, and admonishes everyone that enough is enough. I’m uncertain whether former President Jimmy Carter is that heroic adult. Carter in an interview Tuesday and later in an address to his own forum said Rep. Joe Wilson’s “You lie” outburst to President Barack Obama during...

From Sunday’s op-ed: In the meantime, a certain damage has been done — to Obama and to the country. The inmates took over the asylum, trivializing and poisoning the national discourse while the president bided his time. The lies that Obama called out so strongly in his speech — from “death panels” to “government takeover” — ran amok. So did all the other incendiary...

Obviously at this point with the need to reconcile the various proposals we do not know what the final form will be for the Baucus proposal (America’s Healthy Future Act). But from the details contained in his announcement and outlined in this press release my preliminary reaction is positive. It looks to be a balanced approach which works to solve the current problems without creating a massive new program. For...

That’s right, what’s the point of Sen. Max Baucus’s health-care reform proposal? Is it to win bipartisan support? Yes, probably, given that Baucus all along has been trying to work with the few Republicans who have shown a slight (if hollow) interest in reform — namely, the GOP members of the Gang of Six. Not surprisingly, though, the Republicans in question, notably Sens. Charles Grassley...

Muntather Zaidi, the Iraqi television correspondent who became (in)famous when he hurled his shoes at then-President Bush yelling, “This is a gift from the Iraqis! This is the farewell kiss, you dog!” was released from an Iraqi prison yesterday. Zaidi was sentenced to three years in prison, but his sentence was later shortened to one year and then the judiciary ordered him released this month. According...

Our political Quote of the Day comes from Dick Polman on apparent Presidential candidate wannabe Republican Rick Santorum: Speaking of Santorum, he has voiced the worst hypocrisy of the week (so far). In a conference call with reporters yesterday, sponsored by the Republican party, the ex-Pennsylvania senator said it would be an “abomination” for the Senate Democratic majority to pass health care...

Accurate or not? Here’s John Henke’s take.

http://patriotroom.com/article/wwe-s-linda-mcmahon-prepares-senate-run-in-ct/trackback This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

I had a couple of family members work for ACORN several years ago. They both went door-to-door, made signs, etc. But they quit after a year due to “shadiness”. Both of them said there were many good people working for ACORN but there always seemed to be some secrets among the local leadership and special sub-organizations that did weird “things”. I never really followed up on that...

For those of you who thought American politics now looks like professional wrestling, your belief may soon get a bit of validation and closure: Linda McMahon, CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. has quit her post to devote her time a campaign aimed at getting the Republican nomination and running against Democratic Senator Chris Dodd: Linda McMahon, the chief executive officer of World Wrestling Entertainment...

I despise news reports that mention how a particular vote was “almost exclusively along party lines,” but then fail to list the exceptions. Take, for instance, the over-reported “Joe Wilson slap-on-the-wrist” story. I had to dig through multiple reports like this one, before I finally found this one (and to be fair, this one and this one) listing the exceptions, i.e., the members of...

Here is some “simple arithmetic” about projected health care costs from the Kaiser Family Foundation:

Judging from the reaction on the right to the preview of what’s in former Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer’s new book, they all have been terribly disappointed with Dubya for years now, and Latimer’s book is just a sad and sorry confirmation of what they have all known for such a long time.

When Should “a Thousand Words” Give Way to Silence? by Michael Reagan On August 14 a young Marine Lance Corporal, Joshua Bernard, was struck by a Taliban-fired RPG during an ambush while on patrol in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province. This American hero suffered severe leg wounds and eventually succumbed to his injuries on a field hospital operating table. According to friends, Bernard was a young man whose...

John Darkow, Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

The House of Representatives may not be able to do much these days to draw praise from this corner of the room, currently having a joint approval rating somewhere in the range of fifteen points below Dick Cheney, but let the record show they can pass something. I mean, they’re turning the health care debacle into a national tragedy right before our eyes, and can’t seem to pass a single piece of...

NOTE: “Kenya” in original title has been changed to “Kanye”. – TS Last night, for his bad manners at the VMA. Terry Moran let it slip in a tweet… Now, an ABC spokesperson explains to POLITICO what happened: “In the process of reporting on remarks by President Obama that were made during a CNBC interview, ABC News employees prematurely tweeted a portion of those remarks...

And can it be righted? Being perceived as only being against things is not a winning political formula; the Democrats have been taught that lesson many times since the 1970s. Conservatism seemed to break away from its philosophical moorings four years ago, anyway. [This has been crossposted at my personal blog.]