Mark Schmitt writes about the political ideas of Grover Norquist.#

I've come to think that Norquist is basically an adolescent, with the adolescent's strange obsession with saying the thing that is most likely to get a reaction. I saw him speak the other day, and you can see just that smug teenager's gleam in his eye when he says something that he thinks will get everyone all atwitter, especially a nice earnest NPR host. If he weren't doing politics, he'd be a second-string Howard Stern-type DJ.

Outlandish Josh writes about the Dean pep rally extravaganza.#

The problem is, this is far more chilling than any conspiracy theory. This would suggest that the press corps is fantastically lazy -- in that they were willing to repeat a 15-second soundbyte without getting the context for themselves -- and/or willing to blow with the wind no matter what the facts are. What I don't understand is why no one from the press, and I mean no one, not even on NPR or PBS, stood up and said this was bullshit, that the conventional widsom being peddled was wholly unsupported by the facts. This kind if thing is suppsed to matter if you call yourself a journalist.

The Binary Circumstance on Democrats:#

Bad ideas, good ideas, doesn't matter. The best way for the Democrats to help us is to help themselves. I just can't take any of these guys seriously.

The Binary Circumstance links to John Stossel on 20/20 about silly lies in the world.#

Myth No. 5 — The Rich Don't Pay Their Fair Share of Taxes

According to presidential candidate Al Sharpton, "The top one percent in this country pays very much less than ten percent, very much less than five percent."

Sharpton said he thinks the wealthy should pay "somewhere around 15 percent."

But that's so silly because — and I bet most of you don't know this — the IRS says the richest 1 percent of taxpayers already pay 34 percent of all income taxes. Twice what Sharpton wanted them to pay.

Still you may feel the rich should pay even more. It's a tempting thought, since they have so much.

But let's remember the facts: the top 1 percent of Americans — those who earn more than about $300,000 a year — pay 34 percent, more than a third of all income taxes, and the top 5 percent, those making over $125,000, pay more than half.

Halley Suitt writes about what some see as Dean's shortcomings are his strengths to others.#

Dean is subversive by being honest and direct, emotional and passionate. His critics are quick to point this out. Just as they destroyed other men for crying, they seem to attack him for being vulnerable and human. But the results are paradoxical. Every put-down seems to help him come back stronger.

Michael Feldman writes a beautiful piece of prose about the current politics in American and its addictive nature.#

The Dowbrigade is worried about a friend, and wondering if its time to start planning an intervention. This friend has lately become obsessed and intoxicated by a highly addictive and ultimately destructive activity - American politics. He is losing his perspective, espousing kooky theories, keeping strange hours, and running with a very disreputable crowd. Those of us who care about him are at our wit's end.

[...]

Alas, how charmingly naive. As though the vested interests and savage winners of the multigenerational dogfight for junkyard supremacy who rule our outlaw empire are just going to roll over and fade away when an idealist with shiny ideas appears on the scene. It is almost touching to see such a sophisticated man-about-the-blogosphere reduced to dewy-eyed innocence. Doesn't he know that politics in America is a sick and vicious game, fraught with treachery and hipocrisy, more often lose-lose than win-win? Can't he see that he is being used as a wild-card chip in a desperate gambit for political survival, and that whether the gamble succeeds or fails he will probably be discarded in a heartbeat when his usefulness is perceived to be waning?