In the aftermath of the shutdown publicity stunt, I’d like to take a moment for a friendly public service announcement.

This morning, I’ve seen several examples online where we’re inadvertently reinforcing the conservative idea that Democrats “won’t negotiate”.

Two of the most prominent are a) The New York Times “The Republican Surrender”, and b) the Rachel Maddow chart shown.

I’m posting this PSA because I want to win people over, not “beat” them or force them to surrender. This feeds right in to the idiocy about Democrats not being willing to negotiate.

Remember, the negotiation is still going to happen. Just like it was in April.

If you want to perform a public service and help get rid of this lie, it’s easy.

Perhaps the most important speech of the year: Elizabeth Warren on why government matters.

Found on a whiteboard in one of our conference rooms where the computer projector was displaying a message to change the bulb:

If you read the top quote from an article in today’s Enquirer (picture above), what would your first thought be about what the article is about?

I think the Enquirer does a great job of presenting what would appear to be an unbiased article to a close reader, yet at the same time never really undermining the conservative claim in the title quote, “‘Legitimate rape’ rarely causes pregnancy” to the casual reader.

If you’re interested, here’s how to edit an article to achieve this effect.

This is a little bit off topic from the usual political fare, but NHL Gamecenter is a perfect metaphor for our current economy- a company that rather than provide a quality service, looks to sell you something which sounds good on the surface until you discover the fine print.

By now, you’ve heard the Gingrich line about Obama being the “food stamp” President.

Tuesday in Cincinnati, he repeated the claim:

That’s why I’ve said over and over again that this is the best food stamp President in American history.

Here’s how Democrats responded and here’s how they should have responded.

When it comes to voter ID programs, what’s the typical mainstream media article look like? One side says that the programs prevent voter fraud, the other says that they are “designed to stifle turnout among students, poor people and minorities, who are more likely to vote for Democrats.” The media […]

A great post by spocko over at FDL got me thinking about Thanksgiving … … and the inevitable comments from my conservative Uncle. What’s he going to bring up this year? I’ll lay odds that somewhere between the turkey and dressing and the pumpkin pie my Uncle is going to […]

Yeah, I know. It’s small. Click on it for the full size image. This is the client list for the lobbying firm of Clark Lytle Geduldig and Cranford. You can go to their website and see this picture for yourself. Here, it’s screengrabbed in case it suddenly “disappears”. CLGC has more corporate clients, but […]

Here’s a quick and easy way to illustrate systemic failure in capitalism in a bar over drinks.

Before beginning, you may want to place a beer bet with your friend(s). Something like “I bet I can prove to you on the back of this napkin that capitalism needs government.”

Here’s the setup for the scenario:

Two trappers are trapping animals in the wilderness. The trappers have 2 options. They can work hard and trap, or they can poach or steal from their neighbor.

To illustrate, draw a chart similar to the one below on any standard white restaurant napkin:

(Credit to Joseph Heath for the original explanation).