Political Theatre category archive

Via Job’s Anger.

Via Juanita Jean.

There’s a new outlet for teabaggery in Minnesota that calls itself Alpha News. Michael Brodkorb reports that they have already prepared themselves for any allegations that their news is made-up news.

In a post for the Star Tribune last month, I wrote about the mysterious launch of Alpha News. The first news of Alpha News came from a post by the Minnesota Tea Party Alliance on Facebook. Many of the initial news stories from Alpha News covered issues which have been advocated by the Minnesota Tea Party Alliance.

Please do not be surprised or concerned, as according to the “Website Terms and Conditions of Use Agreement” for Alpha News, “Alpha News is not responsible for the content of postings and comments” on Alpha News.

Follow the link. It’s get better.

Afterthought:

This Alpha will never make it to beta.

No, we’re not.

Jon Stewart discusses Sam Brownback’s efforts to create a Galtian Paradise in Kansas.

Below the fold in case it autoplays.

Read more »

Emily Badger explores the recent spate of laws, like these, designed to shame and punish the poor for being poor, and tries to understand why persons go for them. A snippet:

Political scientist Suzanne Mettler has called this effect the “submerged state.” Food stamps and welfare checks are incredibly visible government benefits. The mortgage interest deduction, Medicare benefits and tuition tax breaks are not — they’re submerged. They come to us in round-about ways, through smaller tax bills (or larger refunds), through payments we don’t have to make to doctors (thanks to Medicare), or in tuition we don’t have to pay to universities (because the G.I. Bill does that for us).

Mettler’s research has shown that a remarkable number of people who don’t think they get anything from government in fact benefit from one of these programs. This explains why we get election-season soundbites from confused voters who want policymakers to “keep your government hands off my Medicare!” This is also what enables politicians to gin up indignation among small-government supporters who don’t realize they rely on government themselves.

Thom discusses the performance theatre.

One more time: a Libertarian is a Republican who’s ashamed to admit it.

Heaven forbid that the state of New Jersey would live up to its promises to fund state employees’ pensions.

It’s too busy losing money by privatizing the state lottery.

Shaun Mullen doesn’t think the GOP’s Presidential prospects look very good. Find out why.

One can only hope that he is correct.

Chauncey Devega wins the belt.

Aside:

As someone who lives near a golf course, I must admit that my opinion of George Soros just notched up.

Also, would Agenda 21 sound so scary if it didn’t have a name like a bad Tom Cruise movie?

One thing that irritates me most about my fellow lefties is the purists, the “so-and-so did not agree with me on my one little issue so I will start a third party/not vote/cut the soles out of my shoes and learn to live in a tree and play the flute” types.

Real life is not pure.

You have to live and vote in the real world. If you don’t, you are an idiot.

You may be a pure idiot, but you are still an idiot.

Attaining pure idiocy is less than an optimal life choice.

Honest to Pete, couldn’t they see that this was dripping in racism?

Two black women who said their hairstyles made them targets for airport security pat-downs said on Thursday the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) had agreed to stop singling out women for screening based solely on their “sisterlocks.”

Words fail me.

Warning: Commericial.

Via Raw Story.

Jon Stewart explores the internal contradictions of Cruzing.

Via Raw Story.

Via Kos.