March Madness now brings in more cash than the Super Bowl, but its star players won’t see a dime.
Ringside
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Daily Meme: Is Same-Sex Marriage Unstoppable?
Marriage is all over the headlines these days. First, an anniversary: Earlier this week, Marcia Hams and Susan Shepherd celebrated ten years of legal marriage. In May 2004, after a years-long legal battle, they were the first and only people in line at City Hall in Cambridge, Massachusetts, ready to to receive a marriage license. […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Dally Meme: Delusion and Moxie, Rove and Jindal
Politics may not be for the faint of heart, but it’s often for the deluded of mind. Today’s meme is about those who are deluding either themselves or others, and will inevitably have their hopes dashed by cruel reality. We start with Karl Rove, who went on Fox News Sunday and said that despite all […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Daily Meme: Strange Doin’s in Dixie
No subject tends to confound political pundits-or national Democrats and liberals in general-quite like Southern politics. And if you don’t believe it, take a gander at the oft-cited 2006 manual for Democratic Dixie-bashing, Tom Schaller’s Whistling Past Dixie, which bizarrely recommended that the party abandon the nation’s largest and fastest-growing region (not to mention its […]
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Daily Meme: So You Want to Be a Tea Partier?
Yesterday, the Tea Party had its first big win of the season. Ben Sasse, who rallied with Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin while vying for the Republican Senate nomination in Nebraska, carried away a comfortable victory against two other contenders. Ted Cruz took to Facebook to express his delight. “Ben Sasse’s decisive victory in Nebraska […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Daily Meme: Paging Doctor Rove
In a move reminiscent of the Terry Schiavo episode-in which Senator Bill Frist, the Tennessee Republican, assumed the power to diagnose people via television-right-wing strategist Karl Rove is spending his time on the speaker circuit telling people Hillary Clinton might have brain damage. Why, pray tell? After suffering from a blood clot in 2012 that […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Daily Meme: It Ain’t Easy Being a Koch
Pity the poor Koch brothers. All Charles and David want to do is make America safe for good, old-fashioned, Wild West capitalism. But somehow, they seem to be teeing everybody off-left and right. Plus, it’s so doggone pricey to buy control of the federal government these days! The K-Bros dished out $400 million to defeat […]
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Daily Meme: Monica Lewinsky Tells All (Again)
Online editors and traffic-watchers across the country jumped for joy today when Vanity Fair published a teaser of Monica Lewinsky’s tell-all piece in its latest issue, due out later this week. Here’s the money quote: “Sure, my boss took advantage of me, but I will always remain firm on this point: it was a consensual […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Daily Meme: The Demise of the Viral Obamacare Victim Story
The political ground on the Affordable Care Act seems to be shifting-perhaps enough to help Democrats in the fall, perhaps not. But as more and more information about the law’s operation comes in, Republicans are having a harder time arguing that all those people getting insurance is a terrible thing. Yesterday, we learned that health […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Daily Meme: Racist Team Owner Loses Dignity; Keeps Team
Contemplating how best to celebrate the birthday of the late, great Edward Kennedy Ellington, one of the finest composers and orchestra leaders who ever lived, one might not have considered the banning for life of a racist team-owner from attending the games of his own team, but that’s not a bad way to fête the […]