Good piece on blogging, the media and the Democratic party from Matt Stoller.

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I just read the nicest story about Al Gore over at Eric Alterman’s place:
Eric,
Just wanted to share a story about Al Gore. Sometime around 1975 or 1976, while living in Nashville, I dated a girl who grew up in Carthage, TN. She was as country redneck as I was a snobby city moron. [...]

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Because they stole the election. (It’s a shame they never showed this on American TV.)

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The Congressional Budget Office points out Bush’s tax cuts are bleeding the budget dry:
WASHINGTON — Making President Bush’s tax cuts permanent will prolong big budget deficits into the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office projected Thursday.
But if those tax cuts are allowed to expire after 2010 — effectively a tax increase Bush has sworn to [...]

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Just got off a conference call with Senator Ted Kennedy, and someone asked a really good question: Why won’t all the Democratic senators support the filibuster, which is, after all, only more discussion?
Kennedy said the press coverage has convinced many senators that supporting a filibuster will be seen as obstructionism, saying, “Look what happened to [...]

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More on my favorite local politician, Curt Weldon, the Congressman from Boeing:
How a little-known Pennsylvania lobbyist would significantly boost Advanced Ceramics’ political influence in Arizona was not clear.
A representative from another company that has lobbied Weldon’s office said a senior Weldon aide suggested the firm retain Grimes. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to [...]

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If only this guy understood the unspoken job description:
The top climate scientist at NASA says the Bush administration has tried to stop him from speaking out since he gave a lecture last month calling for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming. The scientist, James E. Hansen, longtime director of the [...]

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We just got another Senator (Paul Sarbanes) to support the filibuster. Listen to me: This is not pointless. We went from one supporter to 14 in two days.
Senators have turned off their phones because they were ringing off the hooks, their voicemail boxes are full and their fax machines are running out of paper.
You have [...]

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Dr. S. on the economic results of five years of BushCo:
The redistribution of America’s wealth up the economic ladder is the only measure by which one can declare the Bush administration a success. It appears to be the primary consideration behind many of the administration’s decisions because only through this prism do many of the [...]

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I’m the last person in the world to applaud someone losing their job, but in this case, I’ll make an exception.

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I guess a lot of my relatives are getting the message:
A new poll conducted in Pennsylvania (a battleground “purple” state) by Zogby International and commissioned by OpEdNews.com found that 84.9 percent of Democrats said they would be likely to vote for a congressional candidate who “supports having impeachment proceedings against President Bush.” Only 7.0 percent [...]

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From Democrats.com:
Early Thursday afternoon, we broke the news that Senator John Kerry would lead a filibuster against Judge Sam Alito if he could get 41 Senators to sustain the filibuster. Three hours later, CNN confirmed our story.
Naturally, the White House freaked out and told Senator Bill Frist to schedule a cloture vote as quickly [...]

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Here’s your State of the Union, pal!

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I forget who it was, but one of you asked for a breakdown of the Abramoff-related Indian tribe contributions. Here it is.
Let me see if this analogy works: Saying this is a bipartisan scandal is like telling a girl who got gang-raped at a frat party that the guys who did it shouldn’t really go [...]

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I agree with Bob Fertik’s review of Kos’ book:
All of those wonderful principles are utterly and completely useless as long as George Bush and Dick Cheney are in the White House committing war crimes, spying on Americans, and otherwise shredding the Constitution.
If progressives want to have any impact on anything, we must mobilize the 52% [...]

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Chaka’s the frontrunner in the next mayor’s race:
PHILADELPHIA Jan 27, 2006 — Low-income families in the Philadelphia area will receive discounted Venezuelan heating oil in the latest deal bringing fuel to U.S. communities that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez claims are neglected by Washington.
Citgo, the Houston subsidiary of the Venezuelan national oil company, will ship [...]

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Feinstein’s in on the filibuster. Did you call your senator yet?
Her change of heart may have something to do with this:
Caracas, Venezuela – Gold star mother Cindy Sheehan has decided to run against California Senator Diane Feinstein if Feinstein does not filibuster the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel Alito. While in Venezuela attending the [...]

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From Will:
It’s no surprise, but the Democrats lack the 41 votes they’d need to pull off a filibuster against Samuel Alito. That means that — barring the re-incarnation of Anita Hill — there will be a vote on Monday to cut off debate and then a vote on Tuesday to officially confirm him. That’s a [...]

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Oh, goody:
DALLAS – Oilfield services conglomerate Halliburton Co. swung to a profit in its fourth quarter on robust sales and increased rig activity, and called last year the best in its 86-year history. [...]
“They were really helped by the oilfield business being so good and taking advantage of energy being in the upcycle,� Tillery said. [...]

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Things are looking worse for BushCo:
By more than 2-to-1, those surveyed say things have gotten worse in the United States over the past five years. “I love my country, but we’re going the wrong way for sure,” says Faye Sherer, 59, of Salinas, Calif., who helps run a family produce company and was among those [...]

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Juan Cole:
Bush has boxed himself into an impossible situation. He promoted elections that have produced results opposite of the ones he wanted. For all his constant rhetoric about his determination to hunt down and kill terrorists, in Palestine he has in effect helped install into power a group he calls “terrorists.” His confusion over whether [...]

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Here’s that “clarification” we were promised by Perky Katie:
LAUER: Katie pressed him (Howard Dean) on that and we did some research. We went to the Center for Responsive Politics and found out that technically speaking, Howard Dean may be correct. But here’s what we found. That 66 percent of the money in this situation went [...]

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Jordan:
The Alma mine in Logan Country, where two miners were killed last week, lies in the shadow of Blair Mountain, site of the famous battle between miners and company guards over unionization of West Virginia’s coal mines.
This week another battle is brewing between the miner’s union and the company that owns the Sago mine where [...]

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Oh, look. A Fox News columnist was on the take from Big Tobaccy. The New Republic, via Raw Story:
On March 9, 2001, he wrote a column for the website headlined “secondhand smokescreen.” The piece attacked a study by researcher Stephen Hecht, who found that women living with smokers had higher levels of chemicals associated with [...]

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Maybe I should move to California:
SACRAMENTO, Cailfornia (AP) — California became the first state to declare secondhand smoke a toxic air pollutant Thursday, putting tobacco fumes in the same category as diesel exhaust, arsenic and benzene because of its link to breast cancer.
The unanimous decision by the state Air Resources Board relied on a September [...]

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I feel a lot better, knowing this makes Wall Street so happy:
When it comes to medical benefits, millions of Americans already have a health insurer. Soon, many will also have a debit card and a bank tied to their medical plan.
Banks, credit unions and money management firms are now quietly positioning themselves to become central [...]

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Interesting timing, no? That’s the funny thing about the appearance of conflict - you may not be guilty, but you undermine your own integrity by making choices that allow the question to arise:
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 — The investigation of Jack Abramoff, the disgraced Republican lobbyist, took a surprising new turn on Thursday when the Justice [...]

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I hope she gets better, because I can’t imagine a world without Molly Ivins calling politicians on their shit:
Molly Ivins, battling breast cancer afresh, sounds as feisty as ever.
The South Austin resident continues writing her left-of-center column, raising money for the journal where she forged her tart take on politics and, of course, cheerfully gigging [...]

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I’m curious. Can I possibly be the only liberal blogger who sees something wrong with this?
UPDATE: Mediagirl has more.

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My baby brother’s blog just got his first MSM link. Congrats, Mark!

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