Skybarn

Feb 23

“Rubio was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with his family at around the age of eight, and remained active in the faith for a number of years during his early youth, family members told BuzzFeed.”

Former Beastie and current Buzzfeed reporter McKay Coppins breaks the news that Marco Rubio, Republican Senator and potential VP pick, was once, *gasp*, a Mormon. Boom. (via cheatsheet)

Yeah, you don’t get to call your self “Beasties”. There are three and three only.

Feb 21

Wonklife: Am I allowed to quote my blog on my Tumblr? Yes? Cool.

Policy wonks like comprehensive solutions. They look at the problem, look at the solution, and see if the two will fit. If not, they reject the solution as insufficient. And this solution, as most any wonk, myself included, will tell you, is not sufficient.

What policy wonks don’t like to do is…

If you link to it, you will get more hits. Because you need it. You’re famous. You can’t hear me. I’m like a crazy person writing letters to famous people. I really liked you in National Velvet. And Blue Velvet.

Feb 8

“

President Obama has publicly condemned the Citizens United decision and has publicly opposed the role of Super PACs in campaign finance. Recently, though, he signed off on a plan to actively support Priorities USA Action, a leading Democratic Super PAC that’s had trouble raising as much money as its Republican counterparts. “We’re not going to fight this fight with one hand tied behind our back,” explained Obama’s campaign manager. “With so much at stake, we can’t allow for two sets of rules. Democrats can’t be unilaterally disarmed.”

Is this hypocritical of Obama? For the thousandth time, no, no, no. The playing field is the playing field, and once a public policy has been legally put in place you’d be a sap not to play by the same rules as everyone else. If you oppose the mortgage interest deduction as a matter of policy, you still have every right to take the deduction as long as the rest of the country keeps it in place. If you’re a Republican governor who objects to the stimulus bill, you’d be actively irresponsible not to take your share of the money once it’s there. If you oppose earmarks, you still have an obligation to your district to take them as long as they exist.

This trope needs to go away. Seriously. Just deep six it. We should never hear this nonsense again.

”

The Hypocrisy Trope That Won’t Die (via ryking)

See: “The Steroids Era” in baseball.

Feb 4

think-progress:

A children’s choir passes out in boredom while Santorum speaks.

Now, at this time, it would please me greatly if someone would respond with a response such as amen!

Jan 27

theramblingnarcissist:

Time to pay up.

Churches pay none because they are non-profit. It’s a slippery slope that would absolutely decimate and destroy the non-profit infrastructure in the U.S.

(via ryking)

Jan 21

“Three Romney sources say they’ve locked up endorsement from Jeb Bush, @JohnKingCNN reports.”

@HotlineAlberta (via brooklynmutt)

But Obama must never mention the name, Bush.

(via brooklynmutt)

Jan 20

Barack Obama's presidency, three years on – is it time to give up hope?

guardian:

Jonathan Freedland assesses the presidency so far for Comment is Free

Shut up.

Jan 10

34 Facts about the National Debt

hipsterlibertarian:

Here are some of my…uhh…favorites:

#1 During fiscal year 2011, the U.S. government spent 3.7 trillion dollars but it only brought in 2.4 trillion dollars.

#5 The U.S. government spent over 454 billion dollars just on interest on the national debt during fiscal 2011.

#14 If you divide up the national debt equally among all U.S. taxpayers, each taxpayer would owe approximately $134,685.

#15 Mandatory federal spending surpassed total federal revenue for the first time ever in fiscal 2011. That was not supposed to happen until 50 years from now.

#20 U.S. households are now actually receiving more money directly from the U.S. government than they are paying to the government in taxes.

#34 The U.S. national debt is now more than 5000 times larger than it was when the Federal Reserve was created back in 1913.

See the full list here. Which facts do you find most galling?

That people don’t put in the context of a horrible recession and awful economy, which we means the government needs to spend more money and hire more people. Also, the small government crusaders always spend the most. That’s the most galling thing, for me.

Jan 9

“I like being able to fire people who provide services to me. If someone doesn’t give me the good service I need, I want to say, you know, I’m going to go get someone else to provide that service to me.”

Mitt Romney, who we agree with. For example, we fired Verizon when they did a poor job. We all fantasize about firing a rude waiter or a lousy call center rep. This controversy is manufactured. “I like to fire people” is a bad sound bite, but should that matter this much? (via thecallus)

Yeah, well, you don’t actually fire people who provide services to you. You fire people who work for you. There’s a difference. And who the fuck wants to vote for some imperial, haughty asshole who derives pleasure from termination of people’s services? Is that enjoyable. I fucking hate firing people. He’s confusing switching cable companies with severing people from their livelihood, which he’s done at least a hundred thousand times.

Dec 31

“It’s perfectly legitimate to criticize Paul harshly and point out the horrible aspects of his belief system and past actions. But that’s worthwhile only if it’s accompanied by a similarly candid assessment of all the candidates, including the sitting President.”

Glenn Greenwald, Politifacting away his credibility.

Glenn, if an Obama supporter told you that “It’s perfectly legitimate to criticize Obama harshly and point out the horrible aspects of his belief system and past actions. But that’s worthwhile only if it’s accompanied by a similarly candid assessment of other politicians,” you’d laugh in their face, wouldn’t you? You’d find it ridiculous that any critique of Obama would have to be balanced by a critique of another politician. And since when is pointing out racism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia not worthwhile in and of itself?

You’ve gone right up your own ass Greenwald. I’m done with you. And Salon.

(via ryking)