Daily Kos

Back when the Dems were in the political wilderness, we were constantly accused of not having any ideas, even though we had plenty. The tradmed just wouldn't give us any airtime. As Jonathan Chait observed in 2005, "The truth is that liberal ideas aren't getting any circulation because Democrats are ...

On Febuary 4, 2009, Roland Burris submitted a sworn affidavit to "supplement his responses" given during his testimony at the impeachment hearing of then-Governor Rod Blagojevich. And in that affidavit, Roland Burris said: ... Governor Blagojevich's brother, Rob Blagojevich, called me three times to seek my assistance in ...

If you missed it the first time, here's Samuel Alito expounding (at the request of Crossword Tommy Coburn) on why empathy IOKIYAR. COBURN: You know, I think at times during these hearings you have been unfairly criticized or characterized as that you don't care about the ...

Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 5/25-27. Likely voters. MoE 4%. General Election Match-Ups Chris Christie (R) 46% Jon Corzine (D) 39% Undecided 15% ss="indent"> Steve Lonegan (R) 43% Jon Corzine (D) 40% Undecided 17% First, the bad news: incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine trails both potential ...

Why does McAllen, Texas, spend the second-most per person on health care in the United States? In case you were wondering what questions Sonia Sotomayor will have to answer before her confirmation hearings start. By now, we've all heard a lot about Sotomayor's ruling in New Haven affirmative ...

The Plum Line: Whoops. Rob Portman, a Republican Senate candidate in Ohio, has now admitted in an interview that the GOP doesn’t have a position on health care. Worse, he says he came to that conclusion after multiple discussions with GOP Congressional leaders about the issue. ...

First, a reminder of what Senator Wannabe had to say back in the day (complete transcript beneath the fold): The final bit from that video is pretty funny: Q: Were you fearful you were going to be caught on tape here, having a conversation ...

So you've no doubt read by now that Ted Olson -- former Solicitor General of the United States, lead attorney for Governor Bush in Bush v Gore and [something] in the Arkansas Project -- is now involved in trying to strike down Prop 8. And many of you, I know, ...

If you haven't seen Jeffrey Feldman's diary about how Newt Gingrich, patron muppet of the GOP, spent his day Tweeting petty political attacks from Auschwitz -- yes, Auschwitz -- I suggest you take a look right now. I thought Gingrich had reached new lows in boorishness a few weeks ...

It took several hours, but by the end of the day Wednesday, it was evident that Campaign 2010 had a new headline story. Early in the afternoon, the crew over at TPMDC broke the story that Joe Sestak was on the verge of declaring a primary challenge to nouveau ...

As I pointed out yesterday, while the official leadership of the Republican Party struggles to avoid being labeled as racists in the face of Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court, the leaders of their base are projecting their own racism all over the place. We have Rush Limbaugh: ...

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE... Say what? Knock back a morning shot and enjoy some mind candy. "I would've made a good pope." ---Richard Nixon - "I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier ...

Your one stop pundit shop. Edward M. Kennedy (and who better?) takes the health care reform bull by the horns : Over the last year, I've seen our healthcare system up close. I've benefitted from the best of medicine, but I've also witnessed the frustration and ...

There is plenty not to like in the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill – and it surely will not improve when the diluting amendments start flowing on the floor of the House. Environmental advocates themselves are split on how good (or bad) they think it is. But it’s all that’s ...

Tonight's Rescue Rangers are noddem, YatPundit, HansScholl, taylormattd, watercarrier4diogenes and dadanation who also was thought to be editor. The REscued Diaries it really is that important takes us on a trip to Fox Hollow trail in the second installment of a series about the Shenandoah National Park: These ...

Wait? There were other things involving Supreme Courts yesterday? Yep. So up until, well, yesterday morning, the rule observed by federal courts (per Michigan v. Jackson (1986)) was that once the accused has claimed a right to counsel at some court proceeding, he couldn't waive that right during later ...

Surprise, surprise: Ronald Reagan was guilty of the same sort of "identity politics" that conservatives are accusing President Obama and Judge Sotomayor of practicing. During the closing days of the 1980 presidential campaign, Reagan pledged to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court, saying one of the first openings ...

A couple of weeks ago, Tom Goldstein of the SCOTUS Blog pointed out that the debate over Sotomayor's qualifications seemed to ignore the single most important source of information about her legal thinking: the opinions she's written while serving as a judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. While ...

July 2, 1991: THE PRESIDENT: I have followed this man's career for some time, and he has excelled in everything that he has attempted. He is a delightful and warm, intelligent person, who has great empathy and a wonderful sense of humor. He's also a fiercely independent thinker ...

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE... The attack ads have already started Announcer: Another storm is gathering...and this one isn't just thunder and lightning. It has hail and downspouts. President Obama has made his choice for the Supreme Court. And you should be frightened. If ...

Wednesday, and time for some mid-week punditry. WSJ Editorial Board: In making Sonia Sotomayor his first nominee for the Supreme Court yesterday, President Obama appears to have found the ideal match for his view that personal experience and cultural identity are the better part of judicial ...

Darlene Superville wrote: U.S. to announce billions for green jobs, training Some $4 billion from President Barack Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus plan that was budgeted to renovate public housing will be spent to create so-called "green jobs" by making the dwellings more energy efficient. Housing Secretary Shaun ...

Tonight's rescue brought to you by jennyjem, dopper0189, ybruti, grog, dadanation, taylormattd, and pico. Diary Rescue is all about promoting good writers, so remember to subscribe to diarists whose work you enjoy reading. blueness, starting with a discussion of Willi Heinrich's World War II novels, pens a reflection ...

Shockingly, political stories got knocked to the back burner today with the historic selection of Sonia Sotomayor as the designated nominee of the president to the Supreme Court. But in between the biographical tidbits and utterly predictable right-wing talking points, we did have quite a bit of campaign news. So ...

Someone on Twitter just reminded me that today is Daily Kos' birthday! So here's a brief break from vacation to wish this great site and community a happy 7th birthday! ...

Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons is holding a grudge against Barack Obama: The White House offered Gibbons the chance to greet Obama after he lands tomorrow evening for a fundraiser at Caesar’s Palace for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. But Gibbons, a Republican, declined because he was insulted by ...

This is funny: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s critics are already in full-blown campaign mode 17 months before the 2010 election. A conservative political action committee known as Our Country Deserves Better PAC launched an attack Monday that quotes Ronald Reagan criticizing the Nevada Democrat back in ...

In the annals of idiotic reasons for opposing gay marriage, is this cream of the crap explanation from The Weekly Standard -- it's not because they think homosexuality is icky or because the Bible tells them so, but believe it or not, by the end of the article you'll wish ...

Diamond legend Ted Williams once said that hitting a baseball "carries with it the continuing frustration of knowing that even if you are a .300 hitter... you are going to fail at your job seven out of ten times." The same, apparently, is true for Supreme Court appellees. Over each ...

Republicans -- they're never satisfied. ...

Marcy Wheeler: The Bush administration's Torture 13. They authorized it, they decided how to implement it, and they crafted the legal fig leaf to justify it. Glenn Greenwald: Distorting public opinion on torture investigations Paul Krugman: There will be a lot of soul-searching later this ...

Massachusetts got good news Tuesday when the U.S. Department of Energy announced that the state will receive $25 million from the federal stimulus package to build the Wind Technology Testing Center on Boston Harbor in the city’s neighborhood of Charlestown. When it is completed, the center will be able to ...

Tonight's Rescue Rangers are ItsJessMe, dadanation, sunspark says, HansScholl, noddem, and jlms qkw with vcmvo2 editing. The diaries up for rescue are: Frank Cocozzelli explores the motivations behind the controversy: A Catholic Bishop's War on Obama & Notre Dame. (sunspark says) tegrat uses Dr. Frank Luntz's own words ...

For years, it has been an article of faith that national elections in America are competitive for three reasons: the urban areas are heavily Democratic, the rural areas are heavily Republican, and the two parties come reasonably close to splitting the difference in the suburbs. This type of regional ...

These are the professionals we're supposed to be mourning and scrambling to save, the ones whose work all the rest of us are supposedly sponging off of. You know, the ones a democracy can't function without. Maureen Dowd, Pulitizer Prize winner. Today. New York Times: More and ...

Though pundits tend to throw around both terms as if they're interchangeable, average and median are not the same thing. If you grabbed nine people off the street and put them in a room with Bill Gates, the average net worth would be in the billions. But (unless you made ...

Newt Heisley, creator of the POW/MIA flag, passed away this week at the age of 88. Michael Steele says Notre Dame giving President Obama an honorary degree is inappropriate. Egyptian officials are preparing for President Obama's visit next month and are requesting he speak from the 1,000 ...

When celebrities hit the campaign trail for candidates, it's often surreal, and a lot more fun than you'd expect. It can also be a window into how people respond to the aura of celebrity. In late 2007, Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne did a series of events for John ...

For two lawyers who supposedly specialize in media and First Amendment law, these guys were so full of stupid I'm embarrassed for them. You see, they have just the legislative solutions to the newspaper industry's ills! -- Bring copyright laws into the age of the search engine. Taking ...

There are some jobs so challenging, so emotionally stressful, that a culture of biting black humor is needed just to get through the day. Fire fighters who talk about "crispy critters" don't do it because they fail to understand that the remains found in a smoldering house are someone's ...

Frank Rich: The GQ article isn’t the only revelation of previously unknown Bush Defense Department misbehavior to emerge this month. Just two weeks ago, the Obama Pentagon revealed that a major cover-up of corruption had taken place at the Bush Pentagon on Jan. 14 of this year ...

Frank Rich at The New York Times writes TO paraphrase Al Pacino in "Godfather III," just when we thought we were out, the Bush mob keeps pulling us back in. And will keep doing so. No matter how hard President Obama tries to turn the page on the ...

In May of 2001, just a few months into his first term, President Bush delivered the commencement address at Yale University (Dick Cheney flunked out of there), where he was greeted by protests. Today, President Obama will deliver the commencement address at the University of Notre Dame, where he will ...

This evening's Rescue Rangers are noddem, grog, ybruti, sunspark says, srkp23, mem from somerville, with watercarrier4diogenes at the wheel of the Editmobile Tonight, we have a cup that runneth over, always a delightful experience in this editor's eyes. The Rangers noted above have provided the feast, now you faithful ...

Statement by President George W. Bush, June 26, 2003. THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary June 26, 2003 STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture Today, on the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims ...

If you live near Seattle and have kids who like dinos -- or might qualify as an overgrown kiddy dino aficionado yourself -- pack them up and head off to Key Arena at the Seattle Center (Ticket Info). This isn't special effects on screen, it's life sized dinos resurrected on ...

Saturday punditry at its best. And they feel like talking. Gail Collins: As the White House’s unfiltered talking head, Biden is the perfect warning bell to show the White House when things are veering out of control. A kind of mental canary in the governmental ...

Already under assault from Republicans, who have called it a "declaration of war on the Midwest," the diluted American Clean Energy And Security Act (ACES) faces resistance in its current form from moderate and conservative Democrats as well. Consequently, as Darren Samuelsohn of Greenwire reports, a scheduled vote on the ...

Tonight's Rescue Rangers are YatPundit, dadanation, noddem, jennyjem, vcmvo2, srkp23 and grog. chondrally, in a diary full of techno-wonky goodness, boils down some of the technical background behind greenhouse gases in Projections of CO2, including ocean chemistry, and methane in a publicly understandable manner. (YatPundit) Bostontom submits that writers ...

[bumped - BarbinMD] In the finest traditions of both Daily Kos and baby animals, we're pleased to announce a Kossack Kontest to name our newborn goposaur. The cute critter is just a few days old, but we've already developed strong emotional bonds to the li'l guy (or gal -- ...

On the sixth anniversary of "Mission Accomplished" day, in Iraq: BAGHDAD — Two American Marines and a sailor were killed during a military operation in Anbar, the vast province west of Baghdad where combat operations and violence have declined dramatically, the American military command said in a statement ...

AG Eric Holder, and presumably Sec. of State Clinton, have been doing the groundwork to find international friends and allies willing to take Guantanamo detainees. About 30 detainees are on the list to be repatriated, and those requests are expected to happen "Within weeks as opposed to months." The ...

There are no depths to which Michael Steele will not sink: CALLER: I wanted to bounce off to you my opinion of the press conference on Wednesday. STEELE: Okay, go ahead. CALLER: That was truly an enchanting evening, wasn't it? STEELE: I was ...

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE... The Love-in at Sea: Six Years Later Six years ago today, former President Cuckoo Bananas donned a flight suit (including an elephantine codpiece) strapped himself into a Viking S-3B with a couple capable pilots and flew out to the USS Abraham Lincoln, ...

Coming up on Sunday Kos .... mcjoan will review Blue Gold: World Water Wars, an award-winning documentary which explores the world water crisis and the global conflicts that have, and will, result from the privatization and commoditization of our fresh water supply. Jed will have a "Loon ...

Sean Hannity just can't get over the fact that President Obama didn't call on Fox at Wednesday night's press conference: What's funnier? Hannity whining like a little brat that Fox got passed over, or Hannity's belief that Fox is a "real" news channel? ...

Today is May Day. It's Labor Day for most of the world, the one day every year on which the work of people from every corner of the globe is recognized and celebrated. Every corner, that is, except North America. Neither the US nor Canada celebrate May Day -- in ...

A significant majority of Americans responding to this week's Research 2000 poll want to see some kind of investigation into the Bush administration's abuses of power. Asked whether they would prefer a criminal investigation, independent panel, or neither in the use of the Justice Department for political purposes, torture, ...

Our latest weekly tracking poll results are in...along with a couple of fascinating national poll results testing the possibility of investigations into possible illegal activity by the Bush Administration. Perhaps most significantly, 46% of Americans now think the country is on the right track. While "wrong track" is still ...

Three U.S. troops were killed in Iraq: The deaths brought the total for American troops in April to 18, according to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, making it the deadliest month for American forces in Iraq since September. >And speaking of Iraq, today is the six ...

Earlier this week, The New York Times ran a story on a December, 2007 ABC News story in which John Kiriakou, a former C.I.A. officer claimed that the torture of Abu Zubaydah "worked and yielded results very quickly." Mr. Zubaydah started to cooperate after being waterboarded for ...

In this clip, Fox News host Steve Doocy claims "Obama would really have to appoint an outright Socialist for him to find somebody more to the left of Justice Souter." The evidence? Souter supported Roe v. Wade and opposed Bush v. Gore. In other words, in the ...

Glenn Beck sez he's not doin' nothin' wrong. Blaming TV or radio hosts for the nutjob who killed three Pittsburgh police officers over the weekend is like blaming a flight attendant after a terrorist takes down a plane. In other words: Giving passengers a safety talk ...

Excellent news for the Scott Murphy campaign: a judge has ruled that the state may begin counting paper ballots tomorrow, April 8, after the deadline for domestic absentee ballots. From a Murphy campaign press release: Glens Falls, NY — The State Supreme Court in sided with the ...

For all of our rationality and our civilized society, human beings are instinctive creatures, susceptible to the same survival instincts that cause other animals to panic, to flee, and to fight. It is perhaps in recognition of this natural principle that the law prohibits speech that may incite others ...

There's a new sheriff in town: Cheered wildly by U.S. troops, President Barack Obama flew unannounced into Iraq on Tuesday and promptly declared it is time for Iraqis "take responsibility for their country" after America's commitment of six years and thousands of lives. "You have given Iraq ...

It seems the President Obama's trip is a success in the eyes of the American people: A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey -- in the field from Friday through Sunday -- showed that a strong majority (61 percent) believed Obama had accomplished either "a great deal" (16 percent) ...

The Vermont House has just voted 100-49 to override Gov. Jim Douglas' (R) veto of marriage rights legislation. One hundred votes were needed to override, and exactly 100 were cast in favor. The Vermont Senate earlier voted 23-5 to override. The vote makes Vermont the fourth state to ...

Poll after poll after poll after poll, we see the same thing. This time, it's CBS/NY Times (MoE +/- 3): Obama's job approval is 66% and By contrast, Republican fortunes have dropped in the first weeks of the Obama presidency; just 31 percent of respondents said they had ...

By now, no doubt, you've heard that Jim Tedisco's political benefactor, former NY-20 Republican Rep. John Sweeney (who was defeated by Kirsten Gillibrand in his 2006 re-election bid) was arrested over the weekend on a felony DWI charge. With emphasis added: CLIFTON PARK - When ex-U.S. Rep. ...

How do doctors feel about health reform options? This study is from the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The vast majority of physicians surveyed supported a change in the health care financing system. While a plurality support the use of financial incentives, a substantial proportion support single payer ...

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE... The George Will residence: Saturday, 3pm "George! Is this your underwear on the floor?! I'm not gonna tell you again---pick it up and put it in the laundry chute!" "Let me see if my level of understanding of the issue ...

Your one stop pundit shop. Eugene Robinson isn't holding his breath, but he thinks the GOP would be smart to listen to Michael Steele: But Steele's heretical pronouncements have reinforced an important point. The Republican Party has backed itself into a regional, ideological and demographic corner ...

Tonight's Rescue Rangers are Louisiana 1976, jlms qkw, shayera, dopper0189, ybruti, and srkp23 with vcmvo2 editing. ~ World order will be secured only when the whole world has laid down these weapons which seem to offer us present security but threaten the future survival of the human race. ...

We've two competing stories for why AG Eric Holder has requested another delay in the court-imposed deadline for releasing three key Bush OLC torture memos. Last week in Newsweek, Michael Isikoff reports that it's coming as internal pressure from Bush holdover John Brennan. U.S. intelligence officials, led by ...

Dave Neiwert, the blogosphere's leading expert on the eliminationist movement, has a typically excellent post about the weekend's tragic shooting at Crooks and Liars. You have to wonder if right-wingers will ever get it: Difference isn't a threat. They were mewling like wounded hyenas this weekend after some ...

One of the good things about the Employee Free Choice debate thus far has been the way that working people have had a chance to find out who their friends really are . . . and aren't. Arlen Specter, long a Republican who liked to wrap himself in the cloak ...

The Houston Chronicle reports another possible name under consideration for NASA Director, former Rep. Nick Lampson: The 64-year-old Stafford Democrat, whose Houston-area congressional district included Johnson Space Center, has joined a short list of prospective nominees for the href="77,000-a-year post. Former astronaut Charles Bolden Jr., a retired Marine ...

Saturday punditry! Hey, did you hear the one about Michelle and the Queen...? Gail Collins: If nothing else, the president’s trip overseas helped resolve the longstanding question of who can be more irritating, the Republicans or the French. Charles Blow: Lately I’ve ...

Tonight's rescue brought to you by dopper0189, HansScholl, jlms qkw, srkp23, vcmvo2, and ybruti with srkp23 editing. PaulVA brings further proof on why we need the EFCA in Nooses, Racial Harassment Used To Scare Workers From Organizing. (dopper0189) Strange New World, raised in a proud union household, explains ...

So how’s that conservadem “caucus” working out for you, Evan? ...

Poor Tripp Palin, born in to the Palin Crime Family: Levi Johnston says ex-fiance Bristol Palin, daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, allows him to visit their 3-month-old son but won't let him take the baby out. In an interview to air Monday with talk show host ...

Ever want to know how hard up for material the loons are? Just take a look at Bill O'Reilly, still flogging the whole 'disrespect to the Queen' meme...on Thursday. Oh, and also too, do these guys have any recollection at all about what the original tea party ...

Looks like the wingnut assault on Harold Koh has run into a bit of a problem: Theodore Olson, the top conservative attorney who served under Reagan and George W. Bush, dismissed attacks from the right on Obama’s choice for a top legal post, defending the pick as a ...

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE... Late Night Snark...straight from the Queen's iPod: "As you know, Michelle was not the only Obama who went to the G-20 summit. She was accompanied by her spouse, Barack Obama, who made history from the moment he stepped off the plane ...

Dana Houle will look at the return of Iraq's Sunni insurgency. DarkSyde will recap a growing populist stampede in Texas that could soon sweep over a town near you in "Unhappy Trails." DemFromCT will kick off National Public Health Week with an interview with Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of ...

It's time to start an apology watch on Rep. Zach Wamp (R-TN): CNN’s Rick Sanchez asked Wamp whether he agreed with Rush or with Mitt Romney, who’s taken issue with Rush’s desire for Obama to fail. From Wamp’s reply, via Nexis: “Frankly, we need to listen ...

Amherst Guy cautioned us not to put too much stock in the election-day count for New York's 20th Congressional District, as reporting errors were likely to have a considerable effect on the unofficial numbers, one which would subsequently be rectified. A number of Tedisco-friendly counties' returns have since come ...

Run, Ted, run: Now that the corruption case against former Sen. Ted Stevens has been dropped, Alaska Rep. Don Young wants Stevens to run for governor — a move that would set up a Republican primary between the veteran lawmaker and Sarah Palin, if she decides to seek ...

The token "nice guy" in the Republican Party thinks voter suppression and vandalism are freakin' hilarious. Campaigning in Virginia for Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell, here's the Huckster: "You have two jobs. One, get all those people who are going to vote for Bob out ...

Chris Dodd says that horrible poll numbers won't change his plans for 2010: “No, I’m running. I’m running. OK?” He added that no leaders in the Democratic Party have asked him to step aside. >MoveOn tells Harry Reid and Chris Van Hollen that they won't ...

Ezra Klein has created an easy to understand chart on the weaselhood of Evan Bayh: I went back in the rankings through the 107th Congress -- which began in 2001 -- to compare Bayh and Nelson's ideological consistency. The numbers on the Y axis represent how conservative of ...