Krugman: notice the desperate effort to find some number, any number

In his column last week titled Whining Over Discontent, Paul Krugman noted the desperate effort by conservatives to:

..find some number, any number, to support claims that increasing inequality is just a matter of a rising payoff to education and skill...More broadly, right-wing commentators would like you to believe that the economy's winners are a large group, like college graduates or people with agreeable personalities. But the winners' circle is actually very small.

"Administration approved" talking points on NSA warrantless spying

Raw Story has acquired an "Administration approved, unclassified talking points" memo sent out from Alonzo Robertson, of NSA's General Counsel's Office, to Pat Roberts, Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, for distribution to the members of the committee.

The "party of ideas" readies for a smeargasbord

Yes, our self-proclaimed "party of ideas" has just come up with two more good ones.

"Only" 138,000 lack ID to vote in Missouri

Stricter requirements for voter ID has been a hot Republican topic this season, and some restrictive laws have been passed.

Quote of the day

But there was yet another page to the presidential script that wasn't presented, and should have been. On that one, the president would have seized the opportunity to announce key changes in his leadership team. He would have praised Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to the skies and then announced Rumsfeld's resignation, to allow new thinking and new energy to address America's troubled involvement in post-war Iraq.

He would have conceded that, in contrast to the things that have gone well in America's post-9/11 response, American military strategy in Iraq has been a muddled mess.

Editorial in Rochester, NY Democrat & Chronicle

Speaking of state Republican problems, check out the Virginia rift

What do you call it when the state Republican Party conducts a study on how to win the upcoming elections, and the report's publication widens the rift in the party?  You call it Virginia.

State Repubs grasping for straws

It isn't easy being Red (Republican red) in today's political atmosphere.  Just ask the Republican party in my own state, Vermont.

It's Rice's straw man, and she's sticking to it

On today's Face the Nation, Condoleezza Rice said:

The idea that somehow this was a peaceful relationship with Saddam Hussein, and if we had just let him be, the world would have been fine, I find is not a very sustainable argument.

It's Cheney's false comparison and he's sticking to it

On today's Meet the Press, Dick Cheney said:

But the fact is, the world is better off today with Saddam Hussein out of power. Think where we'd be if he was still there.

Swift Boat Vets for "no oil shortage?"

I'm sure you recognize the name Jim Corsi from his slimy association with the Swift Boat Vets' smear of John Kerry, and maybe from WTW pieces examining his character. (See here for example)

You probably didn't realize that Jim Corsi was a Renaissance Man, but wow!