Missouri
"Politifact" Unfairly Attacks The GOP
Republicans have been slamming Democrats for their vote to cut $500 billion out of Medicare as part of the Affordable Care Act: The NRSC revised and reissued a three-day-old news release that targeted virtually identical statements at Brown, of Ohio, and four other senators who all are Democrats up for re-election next year: Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Jon Tester of Montana, Ben Cardin of Maryland and Bill Nelson of Florida. READ MORE >>
A Good Joke Spoiled
Autobiography of Mark Twain: Volume 1By Mark Twain Edited by Harriet Elinor Smith (University of California Press, 736 pp., $34.95) READ MORE >>
Turning FEMA Around
The Potential Disaster Aid Disaster
Some House Republicans want to make disaster aid contingent upon finding offsetting cuts elsewhere: While much of Joplin, Mo., is still under rubble from a devastating tornado, conservatives inCongress are starting to argue for a tougher approach to disaster aid, demanding that any funding be offset by cutting federal money elsewhere. READ MORE >>
On Sunday, a fierce tornado slammed into Joplin, Missouri, killing 116 people, the highest death toll from a tornado in sixty years. Sunday's tornado brings the national death toll from tornadoes to 481 so far this year, the highest total ever recorded this early in a year. But is this just a higher incidence of strong tornadoes, or more overall? READ MORE >>
Senate Democratic Strategery
You know how Republicans in Congress take extreme positions, thereby shifting the terms of debate so that any compromise lands on their side? The good news is that Senate Democrats are finally reciprocating. The bad news is that they're announcing through the media that this is their plan: Senate Democrats are using their proposal to raise taxes on millionaires as a stalking-horse to force Republicans to accept other tax increases. READ MORE >>
Jesus and Jefferson
God’s Own Party: The Making of the Christian Right By Daniel K. Williams (Oxford University Press, 372 pp., $29.95) From Bible Belt to Sunbelt: Plain-Folk Religion, Grassroots Politics, and the Rise of Evangelical Conservatism By Darren Dochuk (W.W. Norton, 520 pp., $35) READ MORE >>
