Liberal Talk Radio

The other elephant in the room: guns. President Bush spoke about school violence for an hour and never mentioned the word “guns.” This is what happens when you’re bought and paid for by the NRA. I know I’m supposed to be a good neoliberal and admit that the NRA wars of the 90s are over, [...]

Yeah yeah, blame it on talk radio*: Angry telephone calls over her proposal to ban restaurants from using a type of cooking oil blamed for increasing people’s cholesterol levels prompted a New Jersey state senator to close her office early on Friday. State Senator Ellen Karcher said her Freehold Township office answered about 60 calls [...]

Although I think it’s interesting and important to have a public conversation about the best way to deal with the terrorist threat, I wonder if we would be as vocal about rights, wiretapping, extraordinary rendition and everything else if Bush wasn’t in power. The issue seems to be boiled down to this: How the measure [...]

Okay, Mr. Contrarian.  Yes, the war is effectively “won” (won like we won Vietnam).  And, yes, the Dems are everywhere on the ascendent … although I’ll believe it when I see it [and, frankly, the likely victory in November will only mask the serious rot in the party's roots -- much like Steve Marucci's 49ers, it's a talented [...]

I have to admit that I’ve passed by Citgo stations on the few times recently when we’ve either rented or borrowed cars**. Apparently 7-Eleven has noticed: Convenience store operator 7-Eleven Inc. is dropping Venezuela-backed Citgo as its gasoline supplier at more than 2,100 locations and switching to its own brand of fuel. The retailer said [...]

It’s the five year anniversary of 9/11 (like, duh), so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised by the ubiquity of patriotic spectacle today. Still, I implore you – don’t remember.  At least, not in the sense of honoring that black day with a national day of rememberance.  Those who lost their lives on 9/11 will always [...]

Of course the curmudgeon who smarmily pooh-poohs the value of the internet in the New Yorker then turns around and cuts his online staff in favor of a dead-tree publication: Jay Rosen, a blogger and journalism professor at New York University, said the move was a “strategic error” and that the review should drop its [...]

Time was, Kevin Smith would seem pathetic by putting out “Clerks II”. Now it just strikes one as rather “Grup”-like: Dude, if I’m wearing the Silent Bob coat when I’m 40,” Kevin Smith once told his old friend and producing partner, he should be shot. The producer, Scott Mosier, recalls this in the DVD extras [...]

Kos writes: Robert Byrd, who voted for cloture on the Hate Amendment, actually opposes the amendment itself. All other Dems, except Nebraska’s Ben Nelson, also opposed the amendment, even many of our much maligned members like Max Baucus, Mary Landrieu, Mark Pryor, and Blanche Lincoln. That’s why even ‘imperfect’ Democrats are important. We won’t get [...]

Village Voice writer Anya Kamenetz tackles what I’ve long thought has been a much-overlooked issue — how unpaid internships exacerbate societal inequities: The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not identify interns or track the economic impact of unpaid internships. But we can do a quick-and-dirty calculation: according to Princeton Review’s “Internship Bible,” there were 100,000 [...]