Last of the Cowboy Heroes: The Westerns of Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, and Audie Murphy
the albany project (Free subscription) | yesterday
The teabaggers around Albany, NY, are an energetic lot. Almost every weekend, they are doing something to promote their Beck/Paul-inspired anti-Obama/Democrats agenda. Saturday, there was another of their sign-waving, please-honk events at the busy intersection of Wolf Road, Central Avenue, and Northway Exit 2E. Twenty or so of the usual suspects showed up with "Kill the bill" and other...
Red State (Free subscription) | 11/13/2009
Looking at the Cook Political Report’s latest competitive race chart is in itself informative - the short version is that of the top 108 competitive races, the following ratios apply: Dem GOP Likely D 45 0 Leans D 23 1 Toss-up D 12 0 Toss-up R 0 3 Leans R 1 8 Likely R 0 15 Total 81 27 …but there’s some interesting things that can be seen with a little sorting. Below is a chart of...
Swing State Project (Free subscription) | 11/12/2009
You may remember that in the wake of the 2008 elections, I tried out a new quantitative project, developing an index for predicting vulnerability for House members based on a mix of PVI and previous House election performance. (It turned out to be pretty useful, in that 2006 numbers were pretty predictive of who actually got knocked off in 2008.) I included, of course, what the index would predict...
The Daily Politics (Free subscription) | 11/12/2009
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a MoveOn.org offshoot and aggressive defender of the public option, is targeting 10 Blue Dog Democrats who voted "no" on the health care reform bill - including NY-20 Rep. Scott Murphy - in an on-line ad campaign. PCCC co-founder Adam Green forwarded me a fundraising appeal sent to 250,000 members that has so far raised just over $20,000. The organization...
Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine (Free subscription) | 11/12/2009
Chewing-Gum Theft on the Rise in Connecticut - Asylum.com : "On the rough-and-tumble streets of Connecticut, chewing-gum robberies are on the rise, say police, who've seen a rash of gum thefts this year. It all started in March when $800 worth of Orbit gum was stolen from stores in Bridgeport, Fairfield and Stratford by one man, Kenneth McManus, who intended to sell it for drug money. Cops say...
North Country Gazette (Free subscription) | 11/11/2009
COMMENTARY By Congressman Scott Murphy Today, a grateful nation pauses to honor the brave men and women who have been willing to sacrifice everything in the service of their country. We owe an eternal debt of gratitude to these exceptional Americans, and I am proud to take part in honoring them. While this day is highlighted nationally as [...]
Jumping in Pools (Free subscription) | 11/11/2009
According to my research, Republicans in the state of New York can win in at least seven congressional districts, and could win in at least one other congressional district. A far cry from controlling just two congressional seats in a state where Republicans can rebound, if we can reclaim our own districts first. New York's first congressional district - Congressman Tim Bishop (D) is the elected representative...
The Daily Politics (Free subscription) | 11/10/2009
Here's Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand speaking on the Senate floor earlier today and warning that the so-called anti-abortion Stupak amendment to the health care reform bill could force women to "return to back-alley providers." As my DN colleague Michael McAullif noted , Gillibrand came close to suggesting that passage of the amendment -which seems unlikely at this point - would be grounds for...
The Daily Politics (Free subscription) | 11/10/2009
Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, apparently still smarting from his loss in NY-20, told me today that he thinks Republicans are held to a "higher standard" than the "other affiliation" (by which he means the Democrats). Tedisco insisted he doesn't think this is "necessarily" a bad thing, but he sounded awfully bitter about it to me. "Look at Mr. (Scott) Murphy," Tedisco...
The Daily Gazette stories (Free subscription) | 11/10/2009
While U.S. Rep. Scott Murphy agreed with some parts of the health care reform bill that passed the House of Representatives Saturday night, he voted against it because he believed the bill wouldn’t cut costs enough.
The Huffington Post (Free subscription) | 11/10/2009
Wait a minute. I thought for sure that I voted for a Democrat last year. When I voted for Scott Murphy in the special Congressional...
Political Partying (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
“I’ve always been focusing on making the right decisions for the people of my district, whether or not it will cost me my political future.” - Freshman Democratic Rep. John Adler (N.J.) — Freshman Democratic Rep. John Boccieri (Ohio) — Freshman Democratic Rep. Bobby Bright (Ala.) — Freshman Democratic Rep. Parker Griffith (Ala.) — Freshman Democratic Rep. Larry...
Capitol confidential (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
Newly elected 20th CD Rep Scott Murphy has caught some flak from the left wing of the Democratic party for his vote Saturday in opposition to a national health care overhaul. Citizen Action has said they are “deeply disappointed,” and Move On is planning a rally Thursday at Murphy’s Hudson and Saratoga Springs offices to [...]
Slog (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
Take a good look at this snippet of map, from a larger map put together by The New York Times . It's a reminder that in the historic House vote on health insurance reform over the weekend, only one Democratic Congressman from Washington State voted no: Brian Baird . The other Democrats in our delgation—Jay Inslee, Rick Larsen, Jim McDermott, and Adam Smith—all voted yes. Joining Baird...
Daily Intelligencer - New York Magazine (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
There would be no clapping from five New York congressmen. Over the weekend, while you were out enjoying the fall foliage, your representatives in Congress were working overtime to pass a historic health-care-reform bill. Well, a bare majority of them were, anyway. After some painful compromise (hope you're not planning on having any unplanned pregnancies ), peer pressure from one very persuasive...
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