Category Archives: Symbols
Fighting Words
Sheriff Clarence Dupnik has used the Tucson tragedy as a platform to attack his political enemies. Paul Krugman did the same even before Dupnik’s yellow crime scene tape was up. Los Angeles Times columnist, Andrew Malcolm, takes a dim view of Dupnik’s police work. Victor Davis Hanson wonders, in National Review, why people like Dupnik and Krugman focus on Sara Palin’s crosshairs on a map but not the president’s search for an ass to kick. And finally, here’s the Krugman view expressed in a more thoughtful way by Jacob Weisberg in Slate.
If some deranged person strangles an elephant, I’m in trouble.
This item from today’s NYT is by Yale history professor Joanne Freeman on congressional violence – by congressmen!- back in the good old days. I met Joanne at a conference in Boise last October. She spent 10 years digging up stuff for a book about duels, fist fights, and other interesting behavior in Congress.
Poker Face
While endorsing the Obama tax deal during his Friday presser monologue, Bill Clinton cited Charles Krauthammer’s view that the deal was a big win for the Democrats. They just don’t recognize it. Maybe Obama is following Reagan’s advice that you can accomplish anything if you don’t care who gets the credit. It’s enough to make a Republican cry.
Melt Down
President Obama called Replublicans “hostage takers” and the left of his own party “sanctimonious”. Peggy Noonan thinks this shows he hates his own tax deal.
Obama’s announcement of his tax deal drove his own party bonkers. Bernie Sanders conducted a 9 hour Senate filibuster. Meanwhile someone in the House Democratic Caucus muttered “f… the president”.
All Ears
Mitch McConnell has signed on to Republican plans to end earmarks. The last time they were in power, the earmark habit got the GOP thrown out on their ears.
Smoke and Mirrors
The FDA plans to require cigarette manufacturers to place large images on each pack showing the wages of smoking. The images include a toe tag on a corpse, cancerous lungs, gums, and smoke exiting a hole in a cancer patient’s throat. Some tobacco companies have sued claiming the mandate is a first amendment violation.
