Follow the Money

Working for the New York City public school system has taught me at least one universal truism. That is, if you want to find the root of any social problem, follow the money. Once you realize who is profiting from the failure of education, or health care, or international relations... then you know who is really invested in obstructing any sort of solution.

Bill Maher seems to have figured this out. Check out his rant about health care -- it starts around 2:00. (The whole clip is funny if you want to watch from the beginning, but the relevant part is two minutes in). Enjoy.

Retail Politics

Off to see a soccer match. In the meantime, enjoy this:

The American Conservative Union asked FedEx for a check for $2 million to $3 million in return for the group’s support in a bitter legislative dispute, then the group’s chairman flipped and sided with UPS after FedEx refused to pay.

For the $2 million plus, ACU offered a range of services that included: “Producing op-eds and articles written by ACU’s Chairman David Keene and/or other members of the ACU’s board of directors. (Note that Mr. Keene writes a weekly column that appears in The Hill.)”

The conservative group’s remarkable demand — black-and-white proof of the longtime Washington practice known as “pay for play” — was contained in a private letter to FedEx , which was provided to POLITICO.

Awesome.

Mom! I'm being blackmailed again!

You may recall John Ensign, the GOP senator from Nevada who had the good sense to make his affair public just days before Mark Sanford hiked the Appalachian Trail (thereby knocking Ensign off the front page).

Let's find a nice picture of Ensign so you can get his image back in your head. Something that suggests his character:



Pretty much nails it.

Ok so, blah blah blah, snarky comment snarky comment, et cetera et cetera. "You're bagging on a GOP senator who announced his affair a month ago, Matt, what's the big deal? You're boring us when TMZ is on."

Good point, so let's just get to the latest news about the distinguished gentleman from Nevada:

It looks like John Ensign's sexual dignity -- which hasn't been high lately -- has plunged to new depths. His lawyer has just released a remarkable statement saying that Ensign's parents paid the Hamptons $96,000 after the 51-year-old senator told his Mom and Dad about the affair.

I love politics

Drudge is Fun

Headlines like this are why I check Drudge.

Out With a Whisper

I have to agree with Bob Herbert today, not that I was there the first time around.

"Robert McNamara, Lyndon Johnson’s icy-veined, cold-visaged and rigidly intellectual point man for a war that sent thousands upon thousands of people (most of them young) to their utterly pointless deaths, has died at the ripe old age of 93."

The '80s Greatest Hits

Last week, and over the weekend, we reprised one of the classics: A Central American military coup. Brought me back to the days of Reaganomics, Spandau Ballet and Bloom County.

And as you can see in the background, we had absolutely nothing do do with it.


Not to be outdone, China - always China! - stepped up to the plate with some good old fashioned anti-state riots. Not exactly Tiananman Square, progressive, student-led "freedom now!" style; instead, these are ethnic riots. Turns out the Uigers are pretty pissed.

The protesters were demanding a probe into a fight between Uighurs and Han Chinese workers at a southern China factory last month that had left two people dead.

Riots had erupted in the region ahead of the Olympics last August. Seventeen policemen were killed in Kashgar on August 4 in what China described as a "terrorist" attack.

Xinjiang has a roughly eight million population of Uighurs, who have alleged the government of suppressing their rights.

Not sure this is a pattern or a series of unrelated events, but if I were Danny Quayle I'd start dusting off my resume for 2012. Seems like everything old is new again.

Do not go stupid into that good night...

Caribou Barbie calls it quits.

Yeah, hard to believe that Sarah Palin, of all people, is tired of the spotlight. I'd believe the bit about her doing it to shield her family from "all the negativity," but she's pimped her children more thoroughly than anyone this side of the Lohans. I'd believe the bit that she's doing this to get out on the trail in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina a bit early, but quitting an elected post 18 months before your term ends isn't likely to win anyone support, anywhere.

Which leads me to believe that some of the crap thrown against the wall is gonna stick. The "other shoe dropping" option is the early leader, so here's some reading from DailyKos (I know, I know - sorry).

Whatever the reason, I'd just like to thank our lucky stars one last time that this person has been a part of our life for the past nine months. I can't remember a crazier politician thrust onto the national stage in my lifetime, and true to form, her outgoing press conference was a thing of rambling, twisted, mind-numbing beauty.



That's something special, isn't it? Just one long, run-on sentence, or perhaps a series of sentence fragments tied together by nothing at all. It really is the closest thing to the Billy Madison scene I've ever witnessed.

Seriously, I hope this is a prelude to a legitimate run in 2012. She's too much fun to be gone. Don't go, Sarah! Don't leave us!