He voted no on the Hurricane Sandy relief. I guess all he cares about is increasing that $1.36 on the dollar that Oklahoma gets.

What?   He cares about debt.

He votes regularly for tax cuts. Like other Republicans, he doesn't prioritize reducing the debt so much as using it as a justification to reduce taxes and some categories of federal spending, plus (like anyone) it pisses him off to see the opposing party spend money on priorities that aren't his.

I'm not saying he can't align dislike for the debt with his other priorities, but if they conflict, we know what wins.

This is Tom Coburn. It's not like he's someone who's been promoting increased defense spending or opposing all increases in revenue.

He voted no on the Hurricane Sandy relief. I guess all he cares about is increasing that $1.36 on the dollar that Oklahoma gets.

What?   He cares about debt.

I don't even know what the guy is trying to say. The article says he said "How'd they know 10 days after the bin Laden raid that it was Seal Team Six?" or something like that. I don't even know what that means.

He's saying the administration didn't keep secret what unit was involved in the raid against bin Laden, and that retaliation against them is what led the helicopter carrying his son and other SEAL members to be shot down by the Taliban a few months later.

I voted Yes as a part of the valiant effort to save my great metropolis from the deranged mob of hippie revivalists.

there's something great about Portland that doesn't involve hippie revivalists?

I thought Cindy Sheehan was a narcissistic whackjob and this guy is too.

Believe it or not, enlisting in the military does not entitle you to participate only in "just" causes or things that you happen to support. You are expected to do as you are told. If you are told to free prisoners from Nazi death camps, you do it. If you are told to invade a country that had nothing to do with a terror attack that recently occurred, you do it. And in all of this, there is a considerable likelihood that you may get seriously injured or killed.

I'm sorry for his loss. But if he couldn't handle that, maybe he should have tried to convince his son not to enlist to begin with.

have you ever lost a loved one who died serving in the military?   If not, I wouldn't be too quick to judge.

The SEALS did not do what they did for recognition.  It is understandable that they would not have wanted to draw attention to themselves for this very reason. 

Do you mean to say your running mate is this guy?

I wish they had this on IFC or something.

Don't sell yourself short.  This place would be far less than it is without your presence.   Now go learn a new song and pour a cold one.

Always a good plan, though I might reverse the order of those two items.  Thanks.

a song? do you play an instrument?

So how are we going to spin this off from RL? Butterflies a flappin'.

The Liberals might have been content to connect the West by rail through a route south of Lake Superior instead of the more difficult all Canadian route.

I wonder if Louis Riel's rebellion and the founding of Manitoba would shake out any differently?

To really shake things up would be if the Liberals aren't willing to give enough to PEI for them to join the Confederacy and they take the US' offer instead. 

Plus, Mark Obenshain is the nominee for Attorney General, who is far from a perfect candidate, seeing as he drafted a bill that would force women to report miscarriages to the police or face jail time.

And he withdrew the bill when he realized it would do that.

I don't plan on voting for the guy, but let's be fair to him here.

Holodeck?

Yeah... almost. Except the Tories were the more racist party, I think.

Anyhoo, it looks like George Brown will become PM. Any ideas what he might do as PM?

Expand free trade with U.S., and try to reassure Quebec he's not really an anti-Catholic francophobe.

states with a good chance of gay marriage by the end of 2016 (current in red, new in green):

ad hominem blah blah blah.

I don't see how taking fluoride internally makes much sense, you need it topically for it to help your teeth.  I don't much like the idea of people adding random things to my water just because they suppose it is good for me.  Where does it end?  Water is good enough so long as it's clean. 

They don't "suppose" it's good for you. It is good for you. Would you rather go back to the good ol' days when cavities were rampant and everyone had dentures by the time they were in their 60s?

How much of that has to do with water fluoridation and not improvements in dentistry and oral hygiene?  What I'd rather is let people make decisions about their health instead of forcing them to ingest something by making it unavoidable.  If the fluoride is just an addition of the same form that occurs naturally, I don't really have a problem with it, but that doesn't generally seem to be the case.

Cyberannosaurus Rex and VelociRobo just don't get along.

are you saying that the State Department was not one of the "relevant equities" mentioned in that email?

ad hominem blah blah blah.

I don't see how taking fluoride internally makes much sense, you need it topically for it to help your teeth.  I don't much like the idea of people adding random things to my water just because they suppose it is good for me.  Where does it end?  Water is good enough so long as it's clean. 

They're summaries of the emails rather than the emails themselves, but the basic narrative they presented still stands.

The guy operated on summaries that did not actually reflect the STORY he was trying to tell. Yes there was confusion and process blunders... but the actual story about emails showing attempts at a cover-up most certainly does not stand.

We are talking about a difference of a few words.  Did not the State Department want to take out any reference to terrorism because it might put them in a bad light?  And did not the final talking points follow that?

They're summaries of the emails rather than the emails themselves, but the basic narrative they presented still stands.

There's really no reason to like a rapper if you don't like their lyrics.  It's not like there's actual music involved besides sampling.

I hope he stays around for one more term. He's the South's elder statesman senator and he conducts himself with the civility and gravitas that de facto position entails. Roger Wicker has done a better job than I thought he would but he's still kind of a lightweight. Saxby is going to be replaced by a Tea Partier who will probably drag Isakson aboard the crazy train like Cruz did to John Cornyn in Texas. Vitter, Burr, Scott and Boozman are insubstantial. Bob Corker has talent but refuses to use it (or perhaps is in a party that won't let him use it). Lindsey Graham might as well be a senator from Arizona, joined to the hip as he is with John McCain as they decide which country we ought to invade next. That basically leaves Lamar Alexander as the beacon of sanity and competence among the Senate's Southern Republicans.

what, did Alabama finally secede from the South?

Creationists, they've been ruling the World since Theodosius took power.

[The three options here have murdered minimal people.]

Obviously the GM haters are by FAR the most harmful as we can actual point at the many many thousands, potentially millions of deaths they have already caused.  The three options here have murdered minimal people.

I'm pretty sure there are some 90-something holocaust deniers puttering around in Argentina who have killed people.

Sure, maybe a few dozen at most.  But anti-GM people have killed many many more.  Likely millions.

where have anti-GM people killed millions?

[McCain is more boring than Romney]

Romney (R).

Huckabee is a little too so-con, and McCain is more boring than Romney.

I don't understand this.