Jennifer Palmieri: Lefty bloggers participating in ‘coordinated echo chamber.’

Interestingly, this was not intended to be an insult.

Mickey Kaus notes this paragraph of a Politico article that probably should have raised more eyebrows:

“[CAP President John] Podesta’s and my experience was in the White House during the Clinton years, and we didn’t have a coordinated echo chamber on the outside backing us up,” she said. “There’s a real interest on the progressive side for groups to want to coordinate with each other and leverage each other’s work in a way I haven’t ever seen before.”

Bolding mine – and Mickey’s, for that matter. The article itself is dedicated to the completely unsurprising revelation that the Left side of the blogosphere coordinates its attacks on what it perceives to be enemies of the Democratic party. While this may surprise a few that weren’t paying attention, the only real newsworthy item here is that somebody’s willing to go on the record as calling it an “echo chamber.” Apparently, this is no longer an insult. Continue reading Jennifer Palmieri: Lefty bloggers participating in ‘coordinated echo chamber.’

Camille’s latest: Brazil agreed with her, apparently.

Hey, she was the one who compared Obama to Leo X.

story2

Send it around, folks.

Yes, free the president from his flacks, fixers and goons — his posse of smirky smart alecks and provincial rubes, who were shrewd enough to beat the slow, pompous Clintons in the mano-a-mano primaries but who seem like dazed lost lambs in the brave new world of federal legislation and global statesmanship.

Send it around to everybody.

If Rush’s presence looms too large for the political landscape, it’s because of the total vacuity of the Republican leadership, which seems to be in a dithering funk. Rush isn’t responsible for the feebleness of Republican voices or the thinness of Republican ideas. Only ignoramuses believe that Rush speaks for the Republican Party. On the contrary, Rush as a proponent of heartland conservatism has waged open warfare with the Washington party establishment for years.

Crossposted to RedState.

Funny or Die brings us “Nationalized Citibank.”

[UPDATE] Via Brother Caleb: Salon is very, very unhappy at this commercial. Savor it, my droogies. Savor.

Via a will-remain-nameless colleague, the language is very rough, but the sentiment is very real:

Dunno whether to tag this as politics or not-politics. Probably both.

Would you believe that this was Raul Julia’s last movie role?

Honest to God. The hell of it is, I don’t know that Raul Julia wouldn’t have changed things around if he had known that Street Fighter would have been the last time he’d be on the silver screen. Nobody chews scenery like he did in that film unless he’s having fun.

Senator Menendez (D, NJ) being recalcitrant over spending bill.

He doesn’t approve of the spending bill’s change in Cuba policy (Via Dan Riehl):

:The Menendez rebellion was a jolt of political reality for Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Obama, signaling that the solidarity of the stimulus debate is fading as Democratic lawmakers are starting to read the fine print of the bills they will wrestle with in the coming weeks and months, and not always liking what they see.

[snip]

Menendez knew that his hard-line approach to Cuba was a minority view within his party, and that it was at odds with Obama’s approach. But he did not expect to discover a significant policy change embedded in the text on an appropriations bill. His policy aides came across the language when the legislation was posted on a congressional Web site.

“The process by which these changes have been forced upon this body is so deeply offensive to me, and so deeply undemocratic, that it puts the omnibus appropriations package in jeopardy, in spite of all the other tremendously important funding that this bill would provide,” the enraged son of Cuban immigrants said last week on the Senate floor. Menendez even slapped a hold on a pair of Obama nominees to draw attention to the issue.

If you’re wondering why a spending bill has in it a provision that would quietly change our Cuba policy, it’s really very simple: the Democrats want to change our Cuba policy, they control Congress, and they can thus put anything in the appropriations bill that they blessed well feel like putting in. “Appropriate” or “inappropriate” doesn’t really enter into it; what’s important is that they can do something, they desire to do something, and so they will do something.

The article also mentions Democratic efforts to keep subsidizing private student loan companies and farmers (at least, the ones in Nebraska and North Dakota). But that’s just ordinary pork from Ben Nelson and Kent Conrad; what makes the Menendez balk interesting is because it’s supposedly based on a moral objection. Continue reading Senator Menendez (D, NJ) being recalcitrant over spending bill.

Democrats attempt to take control of Connecticut Catholic Church.

Why, yes, that does sound like an egregious violation of various constitutions.

Chris Dodd must be annoying people all over Connecticut. The paper didn’t even try to hide political affiliations for this one:

After a priest stole $1.4 million from a church in Darien, state legislators have proposed a law that would regulate how parishes are controlled and operated.

The state’s Catholic bishops rallied opposition from the pulpits at weekend Masses.

The law essentially would strip the dioceses of all financial control of parishes and leave bishops and priests to oversee “matters pertaining exclusively to religious tenets and practices.” A board of elected laypersons would handle parish finances.

The bill, introduced Thursday by the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, chaired by state Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, and state Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, caught many Catholics by surprise. They heard about it during Masses.

(Via AoSHQ) Before we go any further, let me quote from Article Seventh of the Connecticut state constitution: “It being the right of all men to worship the Supreme Being, the Great Creator and Preserver of the Universe, and to render that worship in a mode consistent with the dictates of their consciences, no person shall by law be compelled to join or support, nor be classed or associated with, any congregation, church or religious association. No preference shall be given by law to any religious society or denomination in the state. Each shall have and enjoy the same and equal powers, rights and privileges, and may support and maintain the ministers or teachers of its society or denomination, and may build and repair houses for public worship.” Continue reading Democrats attempt to take control of Connecticut Catholic Church.