Category Archives: Political extremism

“Obama Wins the Future?” Stop Dreaming, Says Frank Rich

[In an early version of this piece, I mistakenly called Frank Rich "Frank Church." My thanks to an alert reader. How do these things happen? Surely, this isn't the age thing. Is it?]

I find this fascinating: two respected liberal commentators, having studied Tuesday’s election, arrive at wholly different conclusions about the balloting’s long range effect on American politics. It’s worth reading both and seeing with whom you agree.

The utopian blue view comes from the American Prospect’s Bob Moser, who says a new liberal majority has been born (Obama Wins The Future, 11/7/12). In the other corner, New York magazine’s Frank Rich, a liberal with impeccable credentials, sees red and says, The Tea Party Will Win in the End.)

I’ll be fascinated to know what you think!

When you’ve studied the articles, leave a critiquing comment. It’ll be interested to see which scenario readers most agree with.


Can They Postpone this Election?

Yes, they can. Any state could that’s effected by a disaster like Superstorm Sandy.

I’m not kidding.

“Can,” of course, isn’t “Will.” I make no prediction. But it may surprise some to know that a lot of states are empowered to postpone even a presidential election, based on their own constitutional provisions and emergency laws to act in such a manner in case of an emergency like “Sandy.” According to Slate, even governors in states lacking such laws may “reasonably use his or her emergency powers to suspend the election during a state of emergency.”

Okay, okay. This election has already threatened many of us with a nervous breakdown. Another macabre twist of fate is the last thing we might need to consider.

Just know, however, that it is theoretically possible for, let’s say, Republican Governor John Kasich, to postpone the vote in Ohio based on storm damage in eastern Ohio along the border of snowbound West Virginia.

In such an event, surely the $uperPacs of the world would not aim their missiles on über swing state Ohio in the interregnum, right?

But, hell, let’s leave nightmare scenarios for Halloween. It’s not like “Sandy” hit Florida or anything …


Rape-Pregnancy is Simply ‘Birth Out Of Wedlock?’

Tom Smith, the GOP candidate for the US Senate in Pennsylvania, has just stepped in to clean up the pregnancy/”legitimate rape” kerfuffle created by his fellow Senate candidate, Todd Akin of Missouri.

Smith condemned Akin’s infamous comment, yet agrees with Akin and the GOP platform that abortion should be criminalized without any exceptions. Then Smith went on to break new ground on the issue, articulating … um … a handy new way to think about a rape victim who is impregnated with her attacker’s seed. Says Smith, it should be a just another case of “giving birth out of wedlock.”

In the modern Republican Party, this is moderation.


Tonight, I’m Burning Up …

I’m burning up because the country has just endured the hottest July in recorded history, more than 60% of the nation is in drought, scientists tell us that such catastrophic climate events are the new norm, and for the first time since the Great Depression, middle-class families have lost economic ground for more than a decade. My blood’s also boiling because industrialists like ExxonMobil’s boss, Rex. W. Tillerson, says we will just “adapt” to climate change. Earning $35 million a year in “political speech,” he probably feels we’ll just adapt to oligarchy too. Do you know what I feel, Mr. Tillerson? I feel you’re playing with fire.


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