Not My Mother’s Blog

Written in response to the Worcester City Council meeting held last night – read the Worcester city live blog at Worceteria for a quick overview of the night and why this letter was written. It has been sent to every member of the Worcester City Council. For the record, Kate Toomey emailed me back immediately [...]

There’s a lot of talk flying out there about what the president needs to say tomorrow night in order to appease the right, soothe the left, keep the Democratic majority safe and get re-elected in 2012. Frankly, not one of those things is a good goal for a presidential speech – the ONLY goal on [...]

Or – It’s OKAY When THEY Do It! If you point out the fact that there are more people of color in prison than white people, you are not a racist, because you are simply stating a fact.

For those who are just hearing about the whole Obama birth certificate lunacy, it must be confusing as all hell. I mean, after all, Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii to a mother who was a United States citizen. Based on what most people understand about citizenship and the law, that makes him a natural born citizen two times over – he was born on U.S. soil and his mother is a natural born citizen. Therefore, really, it shouldn’t matter where he was born, right?

photo credit: Hamed Saber For the past week, I, like many others, have found myself returning time after time to Nico Pitney’s live-blogging of the Iranian protests. Pitney’s aggregation of coverage from all the corners of the web – from Twitter to email to blogs to news – has an immediacy to it that can [...]

Arlen Specter Defends Stimulus Vote The news is just now breaking that Senator Arlen Specter has decided to switch to the Democratic party – and this bit of video from early February just might explain why, especially if you’re the least bit cynical. Which I’ve never denied – but I’ve also never denied that I [...]

I will admit that I have not been one of those stumping for prosecuting everyone connected with torturing detainees – and can we stop using that stupid word and call them what they really were prisoners. I actually think I would have been content to “move toward tomorrow” – at least in theory. But then [...]

Can we talk about the things that most “liberals” don’t understand? Here’s the thing. I keep listening to the cable news and the so-called mainstream media and – okay, listening isn’t quite the right word. My living room is the scene of some pretty loud and vocal one-way debates that consist of me yelling at [...]

Juice Analytics has a very cool little gizmo going on – a visual tree map that lets you vote on what you think of different parts of the stimulus plan. Keep in mind that the numbers in the bill represent the Senate bill as it existed on January 15 and there have been a LOT [...]

I’m sitting here listening to the tide turning and shaking my head in disgust – not at our President, but at the total ridiculousness of the mainstream and cable news media. We’re hearing all over the place how the president’s approval ratings are taking a huge hit, the whole country is disappointed, the president is [...]

Mika’s response to the statement that the Obama team considers “welfare programs” like increased food stamps, extended unemployment benefits and increased aid to states for Medicaid to be stimulative: a startled laugh and “You’ve got to be kidding!” Well, no, sweetheart, we’re not kidding. And I seriously long for your father to give you one [...]