To A Lot Of Us, It Looked Like It Was Hillary Who Won January 24, 2013
Posted by Benjamin Wendell in Politics, Scandals.Tags: benghazi, dick durbin, ed schultz, hearings, hillary clinton, msnbc, poll, WMD
add a comment
And those new Dems who fawned all over her. How does that help the situation?
New? You mean like Dick Durbin, who’s been the senior senator from my blogmate’s state since 1997? Durbin was one of those “fawners” who came to Secretary Clinton’s defense, noting that the government’s investigation of the Benghazi event was completely transparent, and contrasting it to another event you may recall:
[I have] five words for [critics] to reflect on: Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. We were told by every level of government here there were Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that justified a war. The invasion of the United States. We are still searching for those weapons. They didn’t exist. Thousands of Americans lost their lives. We could have a hearing on that if you like.
If anyone seriously believes that yesterday’s hearings in any way put significant dent in Hillary Clinton’s chances to be the next president, they are suffering from wishful delusions. If anything, her stature is higher than ever. (For whatever it’s worth, and considering the source and the audience, a snap poll conducted on MSNBC’s “Ed Schultz Show” last night asked the question: Did Republicans who questioned Hillary Clinton embarrass themselves? The answer from MSNBC viewers was 95% YES.)
BW
High Time For A Change December 6, 2012
Posted by Benjamin Wendell in drug policy, Politics, religion.Tags: change, colorado, gay marriage, marijuana legalization, poll, washington
add a comment
Smoking a joint in the state of Washington is no longer a crime as of today. In the same state, gay couples now have the same right to marry as do straight couples. There are currently twenty states in which medical marijuana use is legal, and Washington is the twelfth state to legalize gay marriage. Colorado will be the second state in which a pot brownie can no longer land you in the state pen. A recent poll shows that 51% of American’s favor marijuana legalization, and most of the opposers were in the over-65 age group, a demographic that is still presumably mired in the “Reefer Madness” mindset. If you discount that group, the majority in favor is even higher. This is the nature of progress. It’s progressive, not regressive. Humankind in general seems to gradually tend toward greater freedom and wider diversity. Not that there aren’t dissenters and roadblocks. All those Muslim maniacs in the Middle East who would like to see women covered in burlap from head to toe and would have you stoned to death for sipping a Merlot, let alone firing up a doobie, are the exceptions. The wild-eyed Christian fanatics of the West fall into the same category. But they are ultimately relics of the past, and no matter how much they try to pull us back into the Dark Ages, there is hope that reason will prevail. Today in Washington, we have a taste of the future.
BW
Karl Rove May Be An Evil Genius, But The Republican Base Is Basically Stupid June 22, 2012
Posted by Benjamin Wendell in Politics.Tags: birthers, iraq, muslim, obama, poll, republicans, WMD
add a comment
Poll: 63% Of Republican Voters Believe Iraq Had WMD’s
Poll: 39% Of Illinois Republicans Believe Obama Is Muslim
Poll: 45% Of Republicans Believe Obama Is Not A US Citizen
Look, I don’t make this stuff up. And yeah, statistics are often misleading. But 63% of righties think that after a full decade of turning over every grain of sand from Baghdad to Bosra we somehow missed a spare nuke or two? Presumably these are the same people who think evolution is a commie plot and that the moon landing was filmed on the back lot at MGM, the sort of people who are unmoved by things like evidence and facts. These people will be allowed to vote in November, because this is America, where everyone has the Constitutional right to be stupid and wrong. God help us all.
BW
This Just CAN’T Be Right May 31, 2012
Posted by Benjamin Wendell in Politics.Tags: coyote, mitt romney, poll, popularity, roadrunner, women
2 comments
Mitt Romney’s Popularity Spikes Among Women Voters
What’s next? Coyote’s Popularity Spikes Among Roadrunners??
BW
Marijuana Legalization: Politicians (Including Obama) Are Nothing But Dopes May 24, 2012
Posted by Benjamin Wendell in drug policy, Politics.Tags: dispensaries, justice department, legalization, marijuana, Obma, police, poll, revenue, taxes
1 comment so far
Poll: 56% Of Americans Favor Marijuana Legalization
Let me summarize:
1- Marijuana is way less harmful than alcohol or tobacco, both of which are legal, regulated, and taxed.
2- Marijuana is demonstrably beneficial in a number of medical conditions, which is why many states have legalized it’s use as a prescription drug.
3- Mariujana is a weed, no more difficult to cultivate than dandelions. It’s already grown cheaply and sold expensively, resulting in billions of dollars of profit, but not a penny in taxes. Last time I checked, the US could really use a bit more tax revenue. (And no worries, Tea Party Republicans: These taxes would disproportionately burden lower and middle class Americans. The Koch brothers would be on the production side.)
4- Marijuana legalization would result in decreased public safety expenditures. Police could spend their limited budgets pursuing violent criminals. Prisons would have more space for murderers, rapists, and purveyors of Ponzi schemes.
Yet the president is sending federal marshalls into medical marijuana dispensaries and not a single politician on either side of the aisle has the courage to stand up and say it’s just plain wrong. In Washington there’s a glut of bullshit and a paucity of courage. And common sense? That’s about as rare in DC as an unemployed escort.
BW
How Ever Shall I Respond? December 15, 2009
Posted by Benjamin Wendell in Health Care, Politics, reader interaction.Tags: al gore, fillibuster, health reform, joe lieberman, poll, reconcilliation
add a comment
First off, in regard to Cory’s one-time med school roommate (me) having been afflicted with insatiable libido syndrome, if spending an inordinate amount of time trying to get laid versus a fairly miniscule amount of time actually accomplishing that goal qualifies, I plead guilty. If it’s any consolation to the unfortunate woman so afflicted, I can assure her that tincture of time seems to provide a cure, but perhaps that’s just because, unlike Julie Andrews, I can’t get that warm post-orgasmic glow from belting out a tune. And I’d agree that she’s one of the great entertainers of our generation, but I’d argue that her finest performance was in “The Sound of Music”. For me, the hills will always be alive and we’ll never be able to solve a problem like Maria.
As for Democrats being suicidal in supporting health care while Americans are opposed, I’d argue that it depends on who’s asking the questions and how the questions are asked. The current poll showing this massive disconnect with the Senate health care bill was done by Rasmussen, a virtual arm of the Republican Party. A previous poll sponsored by the New York Times, that notorious bastion of left-wing commie journalism, showed exactly the opposite result back in June. I’d argue that Americans are rightly disappointed in health care reform that has become just another boondoggle for corporate America, padding the profit margins of the giant insurerers, including all of those headquartered in Joe Lieberman’s home state, while providing nothing but empty promises for uninsured and underinsured citizens.
Anyone who seriously believes that the lawmakers are doing anything like the job we elected them to do is sadly deluded. If these guys were in any way being intellectually honest, if they were truly concerned with the welfare of the country and of their constituents, there would be no issue of fillibusters or reconcilliation in the first place. On any given issue, whether health care reform, foreign wars, bank bailouts, or trash pick-up, you’d expect that some Democrats would be in favor and some opposed, and the same for the Republicans. That’s if they’re considering the true merits of any particular proposal. Instead, you have 40 Republicans who without even looking at a bill, a proposal, or a freaking memo of intent, will automatically dismiss it out of hand because it comes from the Democrats and the president they seem to hate more than any Al-Qaeda operative, and you have 59 Democrats who just want to win something when they’ve got more guys on the field than the opposing team…and you’ve got fucking Joe Lieberman, who just might be the reason Al Gore didn’t get elected, which in large part is why we’re in this huge FUBAR in the first place.
BW
