Last Wednesday morning found me where it usually does: reading the Targum over a burnt cup of Brower coffee. That morning’s issue promised to be particularly significant to me; in it, Josh Baker responded to my rebuttal of one of his past columns. Reading it, I found myself thinking that he had missed my point; I had been trying to show how the Republican vote on the stimulus package (and all votes in general) had little to do with whether or not the Republicans agreed with its contents. But I …

By Alex Giannattasio

This article was inspired by last week’s cartoon by Chris Grabowski. Those who know me know I have a particular affinity for that special time after meals when we get to sit down for a minute and relieve ourselves of the small burdens we all carry. Give me a cigarette, a newspaper, and a clean bathroom, and you won’t see me for the next twenty minutes. In the course of a regular day, I might sit down at the porcelain throne three or four times; what can …

By Alex Giannattasio
I’d like to talk about bipartisanship. It’s a word that has taken a lot of rhetorical abuse of late, at the hands of our elected officials and media spokesmen. During the campaign season, both senators promised that bipartisanship would be a benchmark of their new administrations. The self-styled “Maverick” of the Senate John McCain often referred to his willingness to cross party lines and “reach across the aisle” when voting in Washington. Specifically, he cited votes on torture policy in the armed forces and environmental protection. Barack Obama …