overton's window. again.

* toledoblade:

"Former GOP fund-raiser Tom Noe admitted today that he used politicians, former aides to Gov. Bob Taft, coworkers, and friends to illegally pour thousands of dollars into the effort to reelect President Bush."

* maha:

"Like I said — In the past several years the media has made right-wing extremism seem “centrist” while progressivism, which has a long and respectable history in mainstream American politics, has been marginalized as something alien and weird and loony. Media enabled the Republicans to become the dominant party in national politics even though the Dems are more representative of American public opinion on issue after issue. It’s more accurate to say that a large right-wing extremist faction has been able to co-opt and coerce a large part of American mass media into reflecting its point of vie"

overton's window. again.

* there's a busby/bilbray interview (real30 mins.)

* sanger:

"In the end, said one former official who has kept close tabs on the debate, "it came down to convincing Cheney and others that if we are going to confront Iran, we first have to check off the box" of trying talks"

that's comforting.

* athenae reviews Helen Thomas' new book:

"The book is a disappointed letter from a mother to a child, from a learned professor to a cherished student. Watchdogs of Democracy says, I gave you everything I had, I told you wonderful stories. I've fought my whole life for this vocation and believed in what is good in it. And this, this is what you see when you stand on the giant's shoulders?"

* stirling:

"This means that the salient fact isn't liberal/conservative identification, it is right track/wrong track. The Republican Congress needs to convince a third of the people who believe America is on the wrong track to vote for the status quo. That is, they have to sell the idea that the only thing wrong with America is that people have too much access to health care, and are expecting too much from Social Security. There simply aren't that many people who believe that God is punishing America for allowing homosexuals to marry in three states."