The Republican Problem Of Race

1:01 am EST January 30th, 2006 | Republicans | 57 Comments

Just thought this needed some highlighting

Another study presented at the conference, which was in Palm Springs, Calif., explored relationships between racial bias and political affiliation by analyzing self-reported beliefs, voting patterns and the results of psychological tests that measure implicit attitudes — subtle stereotypes people hold about various groups.

That study found that supporters of President Bush and other conservatives had stronger self-admitted and implicit biases against blacks than liberals did.

[snip]

The analysis found that substantial majorities of Americans, liberals and conservatives, found it more difficult to associate black faces with positive concepts than white faces — evidence of implicit bias. But districts that registered higher levels of bias systematically produced more votes for Bush.

“Obviously, such research does not speak at all to the question of the prejudice level of the president,” said Banaji, “but it does show that George W. Bush is appealing as a leader to those Americans who harbor greater anti-black prejudice.“

It’s science, kids.

UPDATE: Predictably, Michelle Malkin is pulling a “look over here” complaining that the scientists that conducted the study donated to Kerry. It’s as if the Bush people have a history of not being pro-science or something. Look, 2+2 equals four – even when a Democrat is adding it up. Similarly the knuckle dragging bias pimps at Newsbusters (where they still can’t come up with funny comic strips) swear that merely reporting the results of a scientific study is clear evidence of liberal bias.

Noted for the Record

11:01 pm EST January 29th, 2006 | Politics | 2 Comments

Notice how the “criminalization of politics” talking point has died out, apparently due to the fact that so many Republican politicians are turning out, in fact, to be criminal.

No Sh** Award

11:01 pm EST January 29th, 2006 | Republicans | 3 Comments

As he attempts to extricate himself from the kooky religious right in preparation for his ill-fated presidential run, Bill Frist acknowledges how wrong the Republican congress was to insert itself into the Schiavo family’s private business.

Asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” if he had any regrets regarding the Schiavo case, Frist said: “Well, I’ll tell you what I learned from it, which is obvious. The American people don’t want you involved in these decisions.”

Yes, Bill, you shouldn’t stick yourself in the middle of people’s personal private decisions. Common sense to some, a revelation for a Republican.

Not Showing Up

11:01 am EST January 29th, 2006 | Politics | 19 Comments

Proving my point. Again on the media roundtable segment of “Meet the Press”, the left just refuses to show up. You’ve got Roger Simon, David Broder, NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell, and National Review’s Byron York. Would it have killed The American Prospect, The Nation, or christ, even The New Republic, push NBC to have one of them on there to counter a commited idealogical “journalist” like York?

Christ.

One Of The Sillier Stories

1:01 am EST January 29th, 2006 | Democrats | 50 Comments

Everyone from left to right seemingly has put their two cents in on this story, with the right-wing blogs amplifying the Washington Post’s preconceived notions that there’s any sort of idealogical battle between Democratic politicians (in the “center”) and liberal bloggers (“on the far left”).

I’m kind of tired of this sort of thing, but what the hey. It’s fallacious, untrue, and a misrepresenation of reality. The vast majority of liberal bloggers are not advocating the party make a turn to the left. I can certainly speak for myself and say that isn’t what I’m advocating or have ever advocating. Frankly I’m quite fine with the party’s positioning on practically every major position (though I’m personally to the Democratic left on social issues and to the right on justice and fiscal issues).

I don’t care if you’re a liberal, moderate, or conservative Democrat – I just want you to open your yap. The Democrats seem to believe that sitting down like dumb ninnies even if they agree with Bush is a smart way to go about things. We’ve lost two national elections doing it that way, believing the predominant beltway/consultant consensus that the Republicans will hang themselves if we give them enough rope (but hey, the Democratic consultants get paid so what do they care – although you’d think they’d like to have a larger rather than shrinking pool of clients). That’s just ridiculous.

Eight years of Clinton showed us that even when President Clinton did nothing wrong, the Republicans found some reason to go to the press and make noise (at various times he was accused of being a drug dealer or a rapist, his wife was accused of being a lesbian, and they said his daughter looked like a dog). Sadly, the Bush Team has given us tons of material to work with and Democrats refuse to make hay with it — the simple act of issuing a press release seems to be beyond the capacity of the Democratic press secretaries.

If you don’t make any noise, the media has nothing to cover, and Bush’s policies are assumed to be without opposition and the press reports that “consensus” has been achieved.

By God, if issuing a press release is now tantamount to wide-eyed liberal madness the Democrats deserve to have even smaller constituencies than they already have.

Will the last Democratic senator please turn out the lights? Thanks.

(I do think its funny that advisers to the Gephardt and Kerry presidential campaigns are giving out advice on how to win. Right after that the Buffalo Bills and Minnesota Vikings are going to give us a chat on how to win Superbowls.)

BY THE WAY: As far as Tim Kaine doing the Democratic Response to the State of the Union? I don’t care. It is simply useless. It was lame when we had Pelosi/Reid do it, and it was lame when the Republicans wheeled out J.C. Watts to do it when Clinton was President. The response is useless and it would be better if we just didn’t have one and issue a press release saying that the steaming pile of nonsense he shoveled up in the State of the Union wasn’t worth a response.

But sending out press releases is Michael Moore business, sorry, I forgot.

The Republican War On Science

2:01 pm EST January 28th, 2006 | Politics | 34 Comments

We can’t have any facts dirtying up our propaganda, says Team Bush

The top climate scientist at NASA says the Bush administration has tried to stop him from speaking out since he gave a lecture last month calling for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming.

The scientist, James E. Hansen, longtime director of the agency’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said in an interview that officials at NASA headquarters had ordered the public affairs staff to review his coming lectures, papers, postings on the Goddard Web site and requests for interviews from journalists.

It’s sort of ironic that this perversion of science is coming out on the same day as the Challenger anniversary.

20 Years

11:01 am EST January 28th, 2006 | News | 4 Comments

Man, it feels like the Challenger accident just happened. When it occurred I was 8 years old, and obsessed with going into space and the entire process involved in doing so. They were people who died in the pursuit of science and furthering human knowledge of the universe – very noble indeed.

Topic: History

We Are All Dez Jacksons

1:01 am EST January 28th, 2006 | Politics | 16 Comments

Related to this entry, and the seeming unwillingness of Democrats to even go in front of a camera and just simply say something.

Just 36% expressed a favorable opinion of congressional Democrats, whereas 45% viewed them unfavorably. That’s statistically the same as the showing for congressional Republicans, who were viewed favorably by 38% and unfavorably by 44%.

“I was watching the news & and I heard nothing from the Democrats,” said Dez Jackson, 20, a cashier in Greenville, S.C., who was sharply critical of the president in the survey. “What are they, afraid to speak up?”

I don’t understand what they’re afraid of, or who the risk averse dumbass nincompoops advising them are, but they’ve set us up for failure yet again. Yes, you can wrap a kid in a protective bubble and he may never get hurt, but he never gets to have any fun or make a difference either.

This represents a pretty radical departure for me but I’m just about ready to tell any and all Democrats (no matter their stature) who won’t do the simple act of standing up and be Democrats on every issue no matter how small to go screw themselves – a limp ass Democrat is just as useful as a Republican, quite frankly. Maybe we ought to keep a list. (via Tapped)

A Republican Scandal With Republican Criminals and Republican Politicians

12:01 am EST January 28th, 2006 | Republicans | 25 Comments

Dems Don t Know Jack

The analysis shows that when Abramoff took on his tribal clients, the majority of them dramatically ratcheted up donations to Republicans. Meanwhile, donations to Democrats from the same clients either dropped, remained largely static or, in two cases, rose by a far smaller percentage than the ones to Republicans did. This pattern suggests that whatever money went to Democrats, rather than having been steered by Abramoff, may have largely been money the tribes would have given anyway.

People with brains knew this already, but we have yet another case of facts getting in the way of the Republican belief system.