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I'm Maya Dusenbery. I'm a contributor at Feministing and an editorial intern at Mother Jones. I tweet here and can be reached at maya@feministing.com.

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20 October 11
“

The very idea that the minority would filibuster the debate itself, then filibuster the bill, then reject any effort at compromises, then refuse to offer a credible alternative, then rule out the possibility of creating any jobs at all during a jobs crisis would have seemed genuinely insane for much of American history. And yet, in 2011, the entire political world finds this routine and unsurprising. It won’t be front-page news tomorrow morning, and we’d be lucky if most the public heard about the developments at all.

Tomasky concluded, “I have trouble keeping lunch down when I read these jeremiads about how sad and mysterious it is that our institutions of government are failing. It’s not a mystery. One side wants them to fail. And there’s very little the other side can do about it, besides point it out, which the president has started doing — and now he’s the one being divisive! They’ve turned the world inside out.”
— Steve Benen on GOP obstructionism and the jobs bill.
6 September 11
Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult
31 July 11
“ The traditional American model would tell Republicans to win an election. If that doesn’t work, Republicans should work with rivals to pass legislation that moves them closer to their goal. In 2011, the GOP has decided these old-school norms are of no value. Why bother with them when Republicans can force through policy changes by way of a series of hostage strategies? Why should the legislative branch use its powers through legislative action when extortion is more effective?
— Steve Benen on the new extortion politics.
20 July 11
“ The sociologist Max Weber, in his 1919 essay “Politics as a Vocation,” drew a distinction between “the ethic of responsibility” and “the ethic of ultimate ends”—between those who act from a sense of practical consequence and those who act from higher conviction, regardless of consequences. These ethics are tragically opposed, but the true calling of politics requires a union of the two. On its own, the ethic of responsibility can become a devotion to technically correct procedure, while the ethic of ultimate ends can become fanaticism. Weber’s terms perfectly capture the toxic dynamic between the President, who takes responsibility as an end in itself, and the Republicans in Congress, who are destructively consumed with their own dogma. Neither side can be said to possess what Weber calls a “leader’s personality.” Responsibility without conviction is weak, but it is sane. Conviction without responsibility, in the current incarnation of the Republican Party, is raving mad.
— George Packer on the debt ceiling battle.
8 April 11
How Condoms Are Shutting Down the Government

motherjones:

No, seriously.

Reblogged: motherjones

7 April 11

Rep. Pete DeFazio takes the GOP to task for cutting spending for the small YouthBuild America program, which trains kids who have dropped out of high school to build homes for low-income families. “God forbid that America should do things for working people in this country, or working people should be allowed the right to organize and have a better life.”

6 April 11
“ There is something seriously wrong with the soul of the nation, something fundamentally broken in our political system when it basically exists to help consolidate wealth in the hands of the few instead of providing opportunity for the many.
— Word, Jos Truitt.
11 March 11
Yes, this is what class warfare looks like. Via the Daily Kos.

Yes, this is what class warfare looks like. Via the Daily Kos.

10 February 11
House GOP wants to eliminate Title X family planning program
5 December 10
“ But, again, the truth doesn’t matter when the specter of tax-payer funding—whether it be of abortions or “homoerotic” art—is such a useful one for conservatives. As long as someone is offended by what’s (supposedly) being funded, they can use it to justify intervening in all sorts of places you’d think the champions of small government wouldn’t dare to go: our wombs, our bedrooms, and now, apparently, our museums.
— Rep. Boehner & Co. bully the Smithsonian into removing a video from the National Portrait Gallery’s awesome new LGBTQ portraiture exhibition because it offends some folks’ homophobic sensibilities. Apparently Congress is now in the business of censoring art. How’s that small government going for ya? Fuck you, Boehner.
Themed by Hunson. Originally by Josh