Category Archives: Health of the Republic

16,500 : a “mistake” so egregious as to be a lie

Posted on 2010 March 31 by mongreldogs

Where did the rabid right get the figure of 16,500 new “IRS agents” that (they claim) will be required to enforce the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act? They made it up. Really.  It came from nowhere.  In fact, … Continue reading →

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Quote of the Day

Posted on 2010 March 26 by mongreldogs

From a comment on Political Animal, in a thread about a brick-thrower who wants to “end socialism and the government takeover”, and has time to do so because he’s receiving disability checks from the government.  In describing the futility of … Continue reading →

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Health care reform passes

Posted on 2010 March 22 by mongreldogs

So, against all expectation, the Democratic Party managed to hang together and finally pass the comprehensive health care bill. As a lifelong Democrat, I am flabbergasted. I was certain they’d find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of … Continue reading →

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David Brooks is disingenuous, delusional, or an idiot

Posted on 2010 March 16 by mongreldogs

Today, David Brooks had a column on the Op-Ed page of the New York Times.  It’s pretty much a standard Brooks piece, bemoaning the lack of civility in Washington today.  It is wrong on its facts and wrong on its … Continue reading →

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Texas approves explicitly conservative curriculum

Posted on 2010 March 12 by mongreldogs

The writing was on the wall for a while, but Texas just approved a revision to its history curriculum.  It has an explicit conservative bent — I mean, literally, students are to learn about “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s … Continue reading →

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Our (Even More) Broken Senate

Posted on 2010 February 5 by mongreldogs

News comes that Senator Richard Shelby has placed a blanket hold on Obama administration appointments, apparently as part of a plan to extort pork for his state.  With Scott Brown having been seated, the chance of cloture on these holds … Continue reading →

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A well-deserved smack-down on trials of terrorists

Posted on 2010 February 2 by mongreldogs

Adam Serwer at TAPPED has a nice response to Richard Cohen’s latest hyperventilating bed-wetting over the upcoming trial of several terrorists.  I’m disappointed that NYC has successfully lobbied to have the trials held elsewhere, though I’m glad that the main … Continue reading →

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We Are All Californians Now

Posted on 2010 January 23 by mongreldogs

This is the day. This is the moment that some clever historian — not the first to consider this sweep of time, but rather someone turning over the leaves looking for a more subtle causation — will draw a slash … Continue reading →

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The Democratic playbook

Posted on 2010 January 22 by mongreldogs

in convenient cartoon form. I got this via Ezra Klein’s fantastic blog, but apparently it’s by Tom Toles.

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My congressional lobbying

Posted on 2010 January 21 by mongreldogs

I haven’t really gotten involved in haranguing my elected representatives before, but the possibility of health care reform is so tantalizingly close — and the apparent drift of the Democratic so-called “leadership” is so grindingly predictable and frustrating — that … Continue reading →

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