[ Posted Thursday, July 10th, 2014 – 16:20 UTC ]
Not so very long ago, Republican candidates foresaw a single-issue campaign for the 2014 midterms. The race would be won, they assured themselves, on stoking the public's seething hatred of Obamacare. Republicans didn't need to do anything else this year (something House Republicans excel at: doing nothing), and in fact they didn't want to hold votes on any other contentious issue (like immigration reform), since all that would do is distract people away from the single campaign issue of Obamacare.
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[ Posted Wednesday, July 9th, 2014 – 16:28 UTC ]
In all the fulminating going on about the children in the current border "crisis," there is one problem I have yet to hear addressed, by either side in the debate. Mostly, I suspect, because it would cost a lot of money to fix. Americans who are unfamiliar with the problems immigrants face and who have never personally had to deal with an immigrant can be excused for not even being aware this problem exists. Conjuring up gauzy images of Ellis Island, such Americans wonder: "Why don't the immigrants follow the law and come in legally?" One of the big answers to that question is the monumental backlog they face. A backlog it would take a lot of political effort -- and a whole lot of money -- to fix.
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[ Posted Tuesday, July 8th, 2014 – 16:54 UTC ]
I'll believe corporations are people...
...when one is baptized.
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[ Posted Monday, July 7th, 2014 – 17:17 UTC ]
Tomorrow, Washington state will become the second state with a legal recreational marijuana market (look for a whole bunch of stoner jokes on tomorrow's television news, in other words). While Colorado and Washington both passed their legalization laws at the same time, Colorado's was fully implemented at the start of this year, while Washington waited until now to completely implement the new law. So it seemed like a good time for an update on which other states are moving towards full legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes, since there is news from a handful of other states as well.
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[ Posted Thursday, July 3rd, 2014 – 18:22 UTC ]
What separates humans from animals can be summed up as one simple thing -- the mastery of fire. Even "using tools" doesn't cut it anymore, as apes have been shown to use their own tools to achieve their own modest goals. When you get right down to it, the sole dividing line between us and the other creatures which crawl this planet can be drawn at the mastery of fire. Animals are still scared of fire. Humans, now, are not.
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[ Posted Tuesday, July 1st, 2014 – 16:06 UTC ]
President Barack Obama's poll numbers took a serious downturn in June, which essentially wiped out the progress he's made in the public's opinion since the beginning of the year. There's no real way to sugarcoat it: Obama had a bad month last month. About the only positive thing that can be said is that it wasn't his worst month ever -- but that's not really saying much, is it?
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[ Posted Friday, June 27th, 2014 – 16:52 UTC ]
'Tis the season when the political press all goes a-courtin'. So to speak.
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[ Posted Thursday, June 26th, 2014 – 17:14 UTC ]
This column is somewhat of a departure for me, since I rarely take much note of what actors say, even on the subject of politics. Well, I should qualify that, I suppose, to read "actors who are not currently governors, senators, or presidents." But even with all the attention being focused on Gary Oldman's recent interview with Playboy, I feel the need to point out the fact that while everyone else is focusing on some bizarre and offensive things Oldman said, nobody seems to have mentioned his segue into the subject -- which is even more bizarre (to me, at least) than the rest of what he had to say.
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[ Posted Friday, June 20th, 2014 – 17:07 UTC ]
Today, we're going to have a special edition of the talking points, where we get to know a Montana politician who seems to be seriously considering taking on Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016. But before we do so, it was a busy week otherwise, so let's just dive right into it. First, a look at what's going with Republicans.
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[ Posted Monday, June 9th, 2014 – 16:58 UTC ]
A proposal from Senator Elizabeth Warren would drastically change the program, but so far it hasn't gotten President Obama's full-throated support. While I understand that Obama can rightly say that he's doing what he can on student loans outside of Congress, if he truly wanted to reform the program he would get solidly behind Warren's proposal and push it as hard as possible, in an effort to shame at least the Senate into acting upon it.
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