Thanksgiving Open Thread
 Thanks.

"Bad Picks"
Josh Marshall at TPM offers up some criticism of our Senate race: Bad Picks Have Consequences I was just looking at this run-down of recent polls by Tom Jensen at Public Policy Polling. ... But looking more closely at the races something else stood out to me: just how many of the vulnerable seats are ones where bad or questionable picks by Democratic governors have put Democrats in an unnecessarily weak position. ... The ones that stand out are Beau Biden in Delaware, yet to be determined in Illinois, Kirsten Gillibrand in New York, and Michael Bennet i

The party of no recycles Newt's playbook
Colorado Republicans couldn't come up with a new idea if zombie Ronald Reagan whispered it in their ear while chomping on their brains.  Not that Reagan had any original ideas.  He was after all an actor, and did what he was told.  Anyway, the other day Colorado Republicans rolled out what they said were bold new ideas.    The reality is something different.  To begin with they first called the plan, Contract with Colorado, then reversed course when they finally realized it sounded like 1994 was calling asking for Newt Gingrich's notebook back. &nbs

Thanksgiving Dinner For Forty
The winter holidays are nearly upon us. This time of year always makes the Dog think of his childhood holidays. Most people feel that way, but the Dog is pretty sure he has a relatively unique set of memories. This is not a knock at your families or your traditions, not by a long shot, but when you come from a family where your Mom is the oldest of thirteen kids and your Dad is the youngest of thirteen, well, the sheer scope of the holidays is an order of magnitude bigger than most. So, the Dog thought he would share what Thanksgiving was like in a sprawling, brawling Irish family, so others might have a piece of this experience.   As fun as it was, the day was never rest

Material Support, McCarthy And Repeating History
There is a famous saying "Those who can not remember the past are condemned to repeat it". These are the words of George Santayana, and they are usually misquoted. Mr. Santayana was right as far as he went in this, if you do not remember what happened before, then you cannot profit from the mistakes of the past. It is a good warning when thinking about the protections our Constitution affords us.   Over the last 100 years, there has been an evolution in the thinking on what our First Amendment protections really mean. We have gone from being able to imprison citizens for urging munitions workers to stop making ammunition for WWI because the war was unjust to today where your rig