This comment, on Making Light, is excellent. I'll say no more; just read it.

The Departments of Justice and Homeland Security announced breathlessly today that "three out of four individuals convicted of international terrorism and terrorism-related offenses were foreign-born ( Read more... )

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is complaining loudly about Senate Democrats obstructing judicial nominees.

The hypocrisy, it burns. Or should.

So, we have two new senators incoming.

Their names are Smith and Jones.

These are not aliases; they aren't really named Heyes and Curry.

(Things like this tickle me; I still remember the time, in - was it 2006? - when the last returns resulted in the defeat of senators named Burns and Allen. I titled my LJ post "Say Goodnight, Gracie".)

It's not just the news out of Alabama, although that would have me jubilating even if the rest of the day had been crap ( Read more... )

Representative John Conyers (D-MI), after several accusations of sexual harassment, has announced his resignation ( Read more... )

"There are two ideas of government. There are those who believe that if you will only legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous, their prosperity will leak through on those below. The Democratic idea, however, has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous, their prosperity will find its way up through every class which rests upon ( Read more... )

Thinking about clades today reminded me of an authorial clade, containing a number of writers I read voraciously in the early '70s: Leon Uris, Fletcher Knebel, Morris West, Arthur Hailey, and, in a distant orbit, James Michener. Knebel, in particular, came back to my attention ( Read more... )

This morning, the current occupant of the White House tweeted the following ( Read more... )

Susan Collins.
Lisa Murkowski.
John McCain.

Remember their names. They saved lives last night.

The fight isn't over; the White House has it within its power to throttle ACA by cutting subsidies. But for now, we can celebrate a victory.