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Looks like the Republicans may not have control of the PA state House, after all:
By all accounts Bill DeWeese is poised to be Speaker of the House in spite of Tom Caltigirone’s best impression of Fredo Corleone. At least six reform-minded Republicans, including three freshmen, are poised to vote “present” or vote for another Republican […]

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Hello, I’m an angry panda. I’m here because I’m trying to fix Susie’s comments so that they stop clogging the tubes, fucking up the internets and making the baby Jesus cry. If you’d like to help, try to leave a comment on this post and then email me the results. If the comment […]

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Tech Sensei is working on them. Geeze, it’s not much fun without comments, is it?

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Juan Cole on Saddam’s execution:
The tribunal also had a unique sense of timing when choosing the day for Saddam’s hanging. It was a slap in the face to Sunni Arabs. This weekend marks Eid al-Adha, the Holy Day of Sacrifice, on which Muslims commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son for God. Shiites […]

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Via Melanie, a look at Gerald Ford’s legacy.

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Booman on William Safire receiving the Medal of Freedom.

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For years, it was my tradition to have an open house on New Year’s Day. But for the past six years, I’ve been unemployed at the holidays and it was an expense I couldn’t manage.
This year, because I’m about to start a new job, I decided to do it. What the hell, Jupiter’s in Sagittarius […]

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Very funny joke:
Invited to address a major gathering of the American Indian Nation last weekend in Arizona, President Bush spoke for almost an hour of his future plans for increasing every Native American’s present standard of living.
Though vague on the details of his plan, he appeared enthusiastic about his ideas for helping his “red brothers.”
At […]

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What my favorite Jungian astrologer says is ahead for 2007 - and I’m warning you, it ain’t gonna be fun.

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Robert Fisk:
We’ve shut him up. The moment Saddam’s hooded executioner pulled the lever of the trapdoor in Baghdad yesterday morning, Washington’s secrets were safe. The shameless, outrageous, covert military support which the United States - and Britain - gave to Saddam for more than a decade remains the one terrible story which our presidents and […]

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Gold star mothers react to the execution:
President Bush called Saddam Hussein’s execution a “milestone,” but for Manhattan resident Sophy Haynes, it was merely another grim reminder of her soldier son’s death.
“It’s a nonevent to me,” said Haynes, 78, whose son, Schuyler, 40, was killed last month in Baquba, Iraq, by a roadside bomb. “It has […]

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Really good piece on health insurance practices in today’s L.A. Times that every consumer should read. Single-payer’s not looking so bad these days, huh?
Insurers say they are picky because they have to be.
Kaiser Permanente’s “fairly generous” benefits require that the health maintenance organization be restrictive to remain solvent, spokesman Jim Anderson said. “We have to […]

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See? Squirrels are evil geniuses.

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I’ve been talking about this all along. The “success story” was never real:
Everyone who followed the debate about privatizing Social Security back in 2005 has vivid memories of the Chilean model. Sometimes it seemed impossible to get through any discussion of fixing Social Security without hearing a free-market paean to the way Chile had given […]

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As someone who’s a history geek, it saddened me to read so many house museums are closing. I’ve loved places like this since I was a little girl. If you plan on taking your own children, don’t take them for granted - you don’t know how long they’ll be open to the public.

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Shorter Nick Kristof:
If pigs had wings, they could fly!

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I just saw on the evening news that a Pennsylvania legislator has promised to vote for Republican John Perzel as house speaker instead of Democrat Bill DeWeese, which puts control of the state house back in Republican hands:
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - December 30, 2006 - A veteran Democratic lawmaker told colleagues Saturday he supports […]

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Anyone who’s a certain age knows this awful, awful Bobby Goldsboro song. But this is a very funny cartoon that goes with it:

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Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick with this year’s ten most outrageous civil rights violations - and boy, what a crowded field!

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From Eric over at Wampum:
According to witnesses present:
“Saddam est monté calmement à la potence, il ètait rélsolu et courageux, il n’a pas essayé de résister, n’a rien demandé. Il tenait un coran dans sa main qu’il a souhaité envoyer à une personne. Il avait les deux mains attachées quand il a été pendu.”
Moaffaq al-Roubaï, “national […]

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Courtesy of Climate Change Action, you can watch the entire thing here:
Part 1 of 9

Part 2 of 9

Part 3 of 9

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Richard Clarke:
In every administration, there are usually only about a dozen barons who can really initiate and manage meaningful changes in national security policy. For most of 2006, some of these critical slots in the Bush administration have been vacant, such as the deputy secretary of state (empty since Robert B. Zoellick left for investment […]

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Okay, we’re back up again - for how long, I don’t know. And for those who asked, Tech Guy’s pregnant wife was throwing up all night. They have her on IV fluids now, and checking to make sure she’s not in preterm labor. (She’s not due until early February.)
In the meantime, I’m also posting over […]

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