A Modest Proposal - or - How to Raise $100M in One Night
OK, Debate Watchers, a modest proposal here.Before the debate, get a stack of quarters (you're going to need a lot) and a big bowl.Every time Sarah Palin says something vague or confusing, throw a...
View ArticleHow a Glimmer of Hope Turned into a World of Light
Most diary entries here don't start like this: Yesterday I played a round of golf with a friend who is, sadly, a Fox-news-spouting Repuglican. Golf? Friend? Repuglican? Kos?This isn't about Tim.
View ArticleCan we please try for 61?
Everyone's all giddy about the possibility of a "filibuster-proof" 60-seat majority in the Senate. But don't we really need 61? I mean, aren't we just setting ourselves up to make Joe "The Biggest Tool...
View ArticleOhio Registration Verification Cannot be Done in Time
I'm in the business. I consult for an agency of New York State. One of our main activities is to match datasets to either permit or disallow duplicate insurance coverage. We work with sources from all...
View ArticleBig Crowds
I just spent 5 minutes digesting those photos of 100,000 Obama supporters in Denver, after just as many turned out in St Louis as well. I'm not sure how many came out in Philadelphia when they pulled...
View ArticleBuilding our new home, one nail at a time
Phew.I vote in every election. I live in upstate NY, so it’s not a hugely consequential vote in this cycle. The presidential race was never contested here, the congressional election is safely...
View ArticleBizarre but Predictable
After reading the bizarre letters the NYTimes published in response to Warren Buffett's call to tax the "super-wealthy", I wanted to roll some of the ideas around, try them out, kick the tires.
View ArticleNever Forgetting
Abe Zelmanowitz was a friend of mine. Not a close friend. We worked together - he in the City and me up in Albany, but we had spent a few weeks when I'd worked with him in the City, and we were...
View ArticleThe Loss of Memory
I studied folklore and "oral literature" (ok, it's an oxymoron) in college. At the time, I was interested in closely parsing texts, in understanding the relationship between denotation and connotation...
View ArticleWhy Do Business People Listen to the WSJ Editorial Page?
On his NYT blog, Paul Krugman asks this question. This time, it's about WSJ predictions that QE2 would destroy the dollar and jack up rates on Treasuries. (They were wrong. They are always wrong.)But I...
View ArticleDeclare Victory and Change Direction
In the early 70s, as it became clear to everyone that the Vietnam War was unwinnable, people started searching for ways to shift US policy while saving face. Senator George Aiken (D-VT) suggested that...
View ArticleRedistribution by Any Other Name ...
OWS has taught us something useful. People are generally open to the idea that things aren't fair, and they haven't been for a long time.Right now, that unfairness is often expressed as income...
View ArticleConservative Brains
Krugman's blog post today led me to this excellent analysis of conservative partisan groupthink by Chris Mooney.Mooney finds that conservatives are immune to facts and reasoning, and are only more...
View ArticleA Second Enlightenment
History had an arrow. When I was younger, it had an arrow, a direction. It pointed toward inclusion, and social equality, and justice.Human achievement had an arrow. It pointed toward knowledge, and...
View Article44 for 44
I just gave DailyKos $44 in honor of our 44th President.We did something real here, we DO something real here.Join me.
View ArticleOn the Filibuster - Do the Math
So I finally dragged out a spreadsheet and figured out exactly what the filibuster means, mathematically.Take a minority of Senators, mostly representing low-population states in the south and the Corn...
View ArticleThe Devolving Debate
At the very depths of the catastrophe in 2008, I went with my father to the best (and only decent!) restaurant in Toledo, an expensive steak house. The place was mobbed, with a 45-min wait, and the bar...
View ArticleThe Story of the Shutdown
I was there, on the ground, in 2009, when President Obama took the oath of office. I remember the palpable sense of deflation as he gave his first inaugural address. After a campaign where he clearly...
View ArticleBizarre but Predictable
After reading the bizarre letters the NYTimes published in response to Warren Buffett's call to tax the "super-wealthy", I wanted to roll some of the ideas around, try them out, kick the tires.Jack...
View ArticleNever Forgetting
Abe Zelmanowitz was a friend of mine. Not a close friend. We worked together - he in the City and me up in Albany, but we had spent a few weeks when I'd worked with him in the City, and we were...
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