Fish Barriers

Republicans are demonizing Obama’s stimulus bill because it’s wasteful.  Yes, they say, we need the government to stimulate the economy, but this bill is just pork, not stimulus. To take one random example of this commentary, here’s  the Buffalo News:
How many new economy-stimulating jobs will be created immediately, if at all, by the tacked-on $650 [...]

Zombie Republicans

According to Republicans  the stimulus bill that just passed the House is nothing more than a monstrous pork fest for Democratic pet causes.  It has nothing to do with addressing our economic crisis.    Among the spending projects that Republicans object to:

Amtrak– $1 billion
Child care centers — $2 billion
National Endowment for the Arts — $50 [...]

Lists

Here is one of those lists that tells us more about the list maker than the listed.  Forbes puts forth their list of The 25 Most Influential Liberals In The U.S. Media and it includes a number of  people I recognize and admire:  Kevin Drum (23), Josh Marshall (8), Matthew Yglesias (16), Jon Stewart (5), [...]

Retro taxing

McCain on the campaign trail today:
Senator Obama is running to be Redistributionist in Chief. I’m running to be Commander in Chief. Senator Obama is running to spread the wealth. I’m running to create more wealth. Senator Obama is running to punish the successful. I’m running to make everyone successful.
McCain’s BIG CLOSING ARGUMENT is that Obama [...]

It’s the symbols, stupid

I think George Lakoff has this right:  “Democrats who simply belittle the Palin choice are courting disaster”, he says, because whatever her merits on the issues, she is a strong symbol of conservative values:
Conservative family values are strict and apply via metaphorical thought to the nation: good vs. evil, authority, the use of force, toughness [...]

It’s the worldview, stupid

Biden, Kerry, and Bill all delivered good speeches last night, finally taking it to McCain and the GOP. It’s interesting how almost everyone seems to say something on the order of “I like John McCain”—before dismantling him and his many flip-flops.  Unfortunately, as Amy Sullivan notes, the attacks seem to stop there before asking the [...]

Yes we can (dig out of this quagmire)

Frank Rich says Obama should discard his “Change We Can Believe In” campaign storyline.  “It’s the strategy that vanquished Hillary Clinton”, he says, “but it must be rebooted to take out John McCain.”  In its place he suggests Obama adopt the storyline of “we can dig out of this quagmire”.
Poetic, it’s not; but I think [...]

Framing Obama

From the Washington Post today:
POWDER SPRINGS, Ga. — Sen. Barack Obama on Tuesday broadly dismissed recent stories that he is moving toward the political center, saying he has always held certain centrist views — on encouraging faith, on the right of individuals to own guns — and that attempts to portray him otherwise are the [...]

Make the tax shift permanent

Along with virtually every other Republican, McCain wants to “make the tax cuts permanent”. Tax cuts pay for themselves, he says, and even if they don’t, tax cuts won’t create a deficit because we will just hack away at all that waste, fraud, and abuse. And, even if those plans don’t pan out and [...]

The new DNC ad

The DNC has a new ad in response to an ongoing battle between Democrats and Republicans over McCain’s “happy to be in Iraq for 100 years” comment a few weeks ago. Democrats say it proves McCain doesn’t mind a hundred years war in the Middle East; Republicans say McCain’s comment is taken [...]