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February 2008 - Posts

GOP obstructionists block Senate action on housing crisis

Friday, February 29, 2008 10:37 AM
The professional obstructionists who constitute the GOP minority in the Senate have blocked a bill aimed at addressing part of the sub-prime mortgage crisis: The housing proposal includes billions of dollars for local communities to buy up subprime mortgages
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Bernanke predicts bank failures, promises to start enforcing laws

Thursday, February 28, 2008 10:25 PM
In his semi-annual appearance before Congress, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke predicted that the current economic crisis will likely result in bank failures : On the second day of his biannual testimony to Congress, Bernanke said that some small
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A note to Bill Hobbs

Wednesday, February 27, 2008 8:35 PM
Dear Mr. Hobbs : Your slimy insinuation that a man can be inferred as sympathetic to terrorists because his middle name is "Hussein" is just as idiotic as suggesting a man is a cocaine-addled imbecile merely because his name is "George." Every day that
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Some clarity on GOP scare tactics

Tuesday, February 26, 2008 10:20 PM
Senators Jay Rockefeller and Patrick Leahy and Congressmen Silvestre Reyes and John Conyers have an op-ed piece in tomorrow's Christian Science Monitor that calls out the White House on its fear-mongering tactics regarding warrantless surveillance : Our
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More on McCain and the lobbyist he didn't shag

Monday, February 25, 2008 9:02 PM
I'm shocked, shocked I say, to learn that John McCain seems to have fibbed a little bit about his dealings with Vicki Iseman, the lobbyist he allegedly didn't sleep with, and her client, Lowell Paxson. After the New York Times story appeared last week
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An embarrassing confession

Sunday, February 24, 2008 6:39 PM
As I've mentioned a few times before , I don't watch television at all. About six years ago, I finally got tired of the vapid content that passes for entertainment, the virtually fact-free content that passes for news, and the incessant bombardment of
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TennViews Sunday blog roundup, and the quote of the day

Sunday, February 24, 2008 1:52 PM
R. Neal has this week's edition of the Sunday Tennessee liberal blog roundup here . Go see what's on. My favorite quote was from Left Of The Dial : I’m glad Bruce Pearl isn't a cult leader because otherwise I might be selling all my worldly possessions
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Serbian punk nationalists on the rampage

Thursday, February 21, 2008 11:35 PM
In response to Kosovo's recent declaration of independence, a mob of Serbian punk nationalists started a riot in Belgrade today. Egged on by Serbia's hard-right nationalist prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, a crowd of tens of thousands rampaged through
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McCain/Iseman furor obscures the real story

Thursday, February 21, 2008 8:21 PM
The New York Times story and this Washington Post story on the cozy relationship between John McCain and the lobbyist Vicki Iseman have resulted in a predictable deluge of manufactured outrage from the right wing noise machine. "Manufactured" is exactly
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Fun with numbers

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 8:42 PM
Two statistics appeared today that look startling side-by-side: 1) Obama's lead over Clinton nationwide has grown to 14 percentage points. 2) Bush's approval rating stands at a jaw-dropping 19 percent. If these trends continue, Obama's lead over Clinton
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Anonymous comments

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 12:03 AM
For the time being, I've enabled anonymous comments on this blog. The last time I did this, I had a flood of spam comments to deal with, so I had to start requiring registration for comments. This time, I think I may have mitigated that problem somewhat.
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Survey of US military brass says US forces "stretched dangerously thin" by Iraq

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 7:48 PM
Foreign Policy has conducted a survey of current and retired senior military officers, asking for their opinions on the current state of US forces. The results are disturbing . First, a note about those surveyed: In all, more than 3,400 officers holding
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White House surprised by Kosovo independence?

Monday, February 18, 2008 6:12 PM
While on a tour of several African countries, George Bush acknowledged Kosovo's recent declaration of independence from Serbia and stated that the US would soon establish reciprocal diplomatic relations : President Bush hailed the newly independent Kosovo
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The TennViews weekly blog roundup

Sunday, February 17, 2008 2:13 PM
R. Neal has this week's roundup of Tennessee liberal bloggers here . Go see what everyone's jabbering about. Share this post: Email | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit
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Spielberg tells China where to stick it

Thursday, February 14, 2008 10:01 PM
Steven Spielberg resigned this week as the artistic adviser for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. He disassociated himself from the Chinese as a protest against their unclean hands regarding Darfur: Mr. Spielberg accused Beijing of not putting enough pressure
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McCain's hypocrisy on torture

Wednesday, February 13, 2008 9:15 PM
On the subject of waterboarding, here's John McCain, who was tortured by the North Vietnamese, last October : Waterboarding is a form of torture no matter how it is done and should be a prohibited among U.S. military interrogation practices, Republican
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The continuing crisis

Tuesday, February 12, 2008 9:33 PM
Today's updates on the continuing decline: The six Guantanamo detainees who are slated to be tried by the Bush administration's kangaroo courts are now facing the death penalty; if that's their sentence, they'll be executed at Guantanamo . The charges,
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This Sunday's TN liberal blog roundup

Sunday, February 10, 2008 4:50 PM
The "Goodbye, Super Tuesday" edition of the Tennessee liberal blog roundup is available here . Go see what progressives in Tennessee have been blogging about this week. Share this post: Email | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit
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Bush's hypocrisy on earmarks

Saturday, February 09, 2008 7:29 PM
It took George Bush seven years in the White House to notice that the federal budget contains pork-barrel spending. Purely by coincidence I'm sure, it was not until after the Democrats had gained control of Congress that the president decided to focus
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The journey back to Saturn

Friday, February 08, 2008 9:40 PM
At last year's TED conference, one of the presenters was Carolyn Porco, the leader of the Imaging Team on the Cassini mission to Saturn. Her presentation focused mainly on a tour of the discoveries regarding two of Saturn's most intriguing moons: Titan
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US admits to torture, refuses to prosecute

Thursday, February 07, 2008 8:35 PM
In the span of just a couple of days, the disastrous Bush administration has admitted that it has ordered the use of torture and may do so in the future if it feels like it , whether it's legal or not . And if it's illegal, no one will be prosecuted for
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A stroll around the blogroll

Wednesday, February 06, 2008 9:55 PM
I know I don't do this nearly often enough; here are some posts worth reading from various blogs in my blogroll: Jagosaurus at Hillbilly, Please is patriotic and loves football, but is sick and tired of the Superbowl and Super Tuesday. Newscoma posted
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Two short notes on Super Tuesday

Tuesday, February 05, 2008 6:45 PM
Just two things, for now: I agree with Randy -- delegate math makes my head hurt. This is hypnotic and addictive. Google Maps + Twitter + Twittervision + Super Tuesday = a very cool way to watch what people are saying about today's primaries. Share this
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Rhapsody taking over Yahoo Music

Monday, February 04, 2008 8:40 PM
Yahoo announced today that their on-demand Yahoo Music service is being taken over by RealNetwork's Rhapsody. From the sound of it , Yahoo may be using Rhapsody only as an interim solution, pending resolution of Microsoft's offer to buy Yahoo. I don't
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Sunday's Tennessee liberal blog roundup

Sunday, February 03, 2008 1:40 PM
R. Neal has the Sunday roundup of Tennessee liberal bloggers here . Share this post: Email | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit
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Congressional Dems find more streamlined way to cave to Bush

Saturday, February 02, 2008 8:45 PM
Concerned that they cannot cave to the Bush administration fast enough, Congressional Democrats are coming up with a way to streamline the process of giving Bush whatever he wants : Speaking to reporters here Thursday, both House Majority Leader Steny
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Another ruling against kangaroo courts

Friday, February 01, 2008 9:03 PM
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has dealt a blow (although a minor one) to the Bush administration's attempts to gut Constitutionally protected rights of habeas corpus review : A federal appeals court Friday let stand its ruling
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