Books & Liturature

Their failure to dislodge Speaker John Boehner and majority leader Eric Cantor assures that President Obama and congressional Democrats will get very little done for the next two years. 

Ralph Nader, Nation 

Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

The Republicans are openly introspective about why they failed to regain the presidency and the Senate. It is time for the same kind of rigorous self-analysis by the Democrats, who floated through their failure to regain control of the House without apparent dismay. Their failure to dislodge Speaker John Boehner and majority leader Eric Cantor assures that President Obama and congressional Democrats will get very little done for the next two years. 

In the last Congress, Democrats were up against the cruelest, most extremist, most corporate-controlled Republican Party in history—a party far too extreme for the likes of Senator Robert Taft or Ronald Reagan. Last fall, the House Democratic Caucus issued a list of sixty outrageous Republican votes. If these bills had not been blocked in the Senate, the legislation would have been very unpopular with most voters.

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• It would take nothing short of a miracle to avert failure for the next Pope and a crisis of faith for believers. Here are four reasons why the next Pope will be met with nearly insurmountable challenges, no matter how talented or charismatic.
• Scandal Spectacle: The 10 Most Corrupt and Compromised Cardinals Voting For the New Pope

Wayne Besen, Truth Wins Out

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As the College of Cardinals slinks into Rome to elect a new Pope, the usual chorus of eternal optimists and media  lapdogs follow close behind. The secular press is ecstatic because they can pose as pious while lifting sagging newspaper sales and static cable ratings. Beaten down progressive Catholics will do their predictable dupe dance, hoping against all odds that an almost modern pontiff will be elevated to the throne.

Of course, we already know the outcome, given that the last two Popes stocked the pool of bishops and cardinals with ideological clones, ensuring conservative continuity. If this weren't bad enough, the former Pope will be looking over the new boss' shoulder and has even installed his live-in "personal assistant," to serve the Pope-elect, guaranteeing he has eyes and ears inside the Vatican.

But even if my dire assessment were completely off base, it would take nothing short of a miracle to avert failure for the next Pope and a crisis of faith for believers. Here are four reasons why the next Pope will be met with nearly insurmountable challenges, no matter how talented or charismatic.

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Related:

Scandal Spectacle: The 10 Most Corrupt and Compromised Cardinals Voting For the New Pope, Adele M. Stan, AlterNet

• While the world cries for the church to reform itself, the next pope's electors include cardinals who coddled priests who preyed on children.
• UK Cardinal O'Brien Steps Down; Won't Attend Conclave
• Roman Church admits the Pope's Guilt
• Why the Cardinal Mahony scandal matters

For all the talk of reforming and reinventing the G.O.P., the ignorance caucus retains a firm grip on the party’s heart and mind.

Paul Krugman, New York (NY) Times

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Paul Krugman / Fred R. Conrad / New York Times

Last week Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, gave what his office told us would be a major policy speech. And we should be grateful for the heads-up about the speech’s majorness. Otherwise, a read of the speech might have suggested that he was offering nothing more than a meager, warmed-over selection of stale ideas.

To be sure, Mr. Cantor tried to sound interested in serious policy discussion. But he didn’t succeed — and that was no accident. For these days his party dislikes the whole idea of applying critical thinking and evidence to policy questions. And no, that’s not a caricature: Last year the Texas G.O.P. explicitly condemned efforts to teach “critical thinking skills,” because, it said, such efforts “have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.” [Evergreene Digest Editor's Note: Molly Ivins once said that, if a member of the Texas legislature lost any more IQ points, "We'll have to put him in a flower pot and water him twice a week."]

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• I don’t support partisan political grandstanding and that’s what his stunt was, and that’s all. Of course, Rand Paul supports the use of drones to kill brown Arabs in other countries and “enemy combatants” here in the US and he also hypocritically voted for the National Defense Authorization Act 2013.
• Cliffs Notes for the Filibuster: Rand Paul in His Own Words

Cindy Sheehan, Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox

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Friday, March 8, 2013 | True story: when I was camping near George Bush’s fake ranch in Crawford, Tx, I got a message of solidarity and support from KKK Grand Wizard, David Duke. I immediately denounced it and refused the support.

Recently an obvious political stunt was perpetrated by one of the members of the most exclusive group of one-percent jackasses on the planet, the US Senate, and some very shady and harmful thugs are supporting him in it and I would denounce that kind of support if it were me.

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Related:

Cliffs Notes for the Filibuster: Rand Paul in His Own Words, Conor Friedersdorf, Atlantic

• The Kentucky Republican's nearly 13-hour stand on the Senate floor, condensed into a tight brief for civil liberties
• Obama's Drone Presidency