Former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani is thinking about running for governor of New York and is planning on running a classic whistle-stop railroad campaign on Amtrak. Of course, Giuliani will need the full train to carry all the closets with all the skeletons that accompany him wherever he goes. He'll also… Read full post »

Digby is one of the few white bloggers who closely follows the police abuse of tasers. Here's an extended quote from her article on Glenn Greenwald's blog today.

Tasers were sold to the public as a tool for law enforcement to be used in lieu of deadly force. Presumably, this

… Read full post »

For the last couple of weeks, there's been a lot of media publicity about the fortieth anniversary of the Manson killings.

But it all seems forced to me.

America doesn't live in a "post-sixties" world any more. Whether we like it or not, things have changed. Not that we've forgotten the… Read full post »

I'm not sure why the Republicans are comparing health reform to Hitler, Stalin, and Joseph Mengele, or why they're talking about euthanasia and "death panels."

What they should be talking about is themselves.

By far the strongest argument against Obama's health reform plan is that the Republicans might… Read full post »

Today's Lexington Herald-Leader has a good article by sportswriter John Clay about Cedric Benson of the Cincinnati Bengals. Originally a high draft pick out of Texas, Benson was still with the Chicago Bears when he was arrested ostensibly for public drunkenness on a Texas lake. Here's the football pa… Read full post »

It looks like New York City will have to put off its parade. Four months ago, the right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh announced that he was leaving the city over the imposition of a millionaire's tax and the City was planning a huge ticker tape parade to celebrate.

Back in March,… Read full post »

Tonight, I have to apologize to one of my U. S. Senators and take my hat off to the other. Hats off to Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell for achieving his goal of squeezing the last sparks of life out of Jim Bunning's career as a Senator.

McConnell didn't want Bunning to… Read full post »

Only in America?

Cambridge, Massachusetts police arrested celebrity Harvard professor Henry Louis (Skip) Gates for breaking into his own house.

Police responding to a call about "two black males" breaking into a home near Harvard University ended up arresting the man who lives there –

Henry Lo

… Read full post »

Sarah Palin says "all options are on the table."  But what does that mean?  Here's her top ten options according to a "leading Republican consultant" who wants to remain anonymous.  

1. Bomb Iran from the family's Piper plane.

2. Sit on her front porch so she can keep an eye on… Read full post »

It looks like Alberto Gonzales landed an adjunct gig at Texas Tech University.

Gonzales, who was Gov. George W. Bush’s lawyer, Texas secretary of state and then a Texas Supreme Court justice before joining Bush in Washington, will be working as an visiting professor in the political science de… Read full post »

My wife M and I used to joke a lot about writing a book entitled The Unethical Parent about the necessarily shady business of raising human children.

When our two daughters were little, we used to answer their absurd questions by telling unbelievable whoppers.  What do you say to a 3 year… Read full post »

I'm getting a head-ache from watching the bouncing Palin ball. What's Palin trying to do? Is she getting out of politics altogether? Setting up her run for the presidency in 2012? 2016? Is Palin trying to get rich on the right-wing lecture circuit? Is she going to have a show on… Read full post »

Red State Impressions would like to congratulate David Broder on the publication of his 5,000th column on the "Need for Bi-Partisan Compromise." According to Broder:

"Scholars will also make the point that when such complex legislation is being shaped, the substance is likely to be improved when both… Read full post »

I'm back from a five-week research trip to Philadelphia, back to the home I share with my wife Mrs. Red State Impressions (RSI) and our daughters Miss Teen (almost 15) and Miss Tween (12).

A little world that has now become an estrogen palace.

Of course, the estrogen foundation was already in… Read full post »

As a result of the rain, the Fourth of July fireworks were cancelled in Morehead, KY. However "the Apple of My Eye" and I spent a satisfying 90 minutes of so re-watching the Army of the Potomac repulse Pickett's Charge in the movie Gettysburg.

I see where John McCain gave a really bad&n… Read full post »

So what is the big deal about Sarah Palin's resignation as Governor of Alaska?

That's actually pretty difficult to define.

But I'm going to take a shot at defining Palin first, then defining the significance of her resignation.

Sarah Palin is the first major political personality to emerge from the reli… Read full post »

The News: Al Franken won the court case, Norm Coleman conceded, and now Al Franken is going to be Senator.

The Question: Should we react like Clarence Thomas did when his nomination to the Supreme Court was finally approved--

Whoop-de-damn-do?

The Answer:   HELL NO!

Why spend our whole lives… Read full post »

Being an atheist, I don't normally discuss God's plans. Given that there is no God, there can't be a God's plan.

It's something about the laws of physics.

But Mark Sanford is so enthusiastic about God's plans that it's hard to talk about Mark Sanford without talking about God.

So, I'm going to pretend… Read full post »

Buried in the South Carolina's The State's lengthy report on the l'affaire Mark Sanford is a little nugget on the potential for Sanford to have multiple mistresses.

In their morning meeting, State editors decided to immediately inform the governor and his inner circle about the e-mails.

A reporter c

… Read full post »

Did you ever hope the American right would just give up and go back to their caves?  Did you ever believe that Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter would decide that conservativism has lost and that they would just move to the Keys, stoke up their blenders, and lose themselves in their p… Read full post »

People might be asking "what is gay chicken" and how Ahmadinejad could have a "gay chicken foreign policy."

But I'm not going to go there quite yet.

First, it needs to be stressed that the "gay chicken" model is enormously important in politics and is the best way to understand the forei… Read full post »

Contrary to the Warholian predictions that Samuel "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher would be gone in 15 minutes, he appears to be developing a career as a conservative celebrity. Joe's not as famous as Limbaugh or Coulter but he's still very much an attraction for right-wing audience… Read full post »

Being away from home, I talked on the phone about Michael Jackson's death for an hour plus tonight with my teen-age daughter KC.  

It's KC's  first BIG celebrity death and she was eager to talk about Michael Jackson's early career, Thriller, The Wiz, and his seeming decline over t… Read full post »