Yesterday I waited for the landlord’s crew to patch my ceiling. They finally came to do it near my bedtime. I said no. They had told me to be ready first thing in the morning, and I was. I kept up to date with comments. Today I may not, because I have a ton in work to do in preparation for tomorrow’s volunteer work at the prison.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today it took me 3:14 (4:17 average). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From The Guardian: The US struck its first blow against WikiLeaks after Amazon.com pulled the plug on hosting the whistleblowing website in reaction to heavy political pressure.
The company announced it was cutting WikiLeaks off yesterday only 24 hours after being contacted by the staff of Joe Lieberman.
I wonder why he didn’t pursue Scooter Libby too.
From Washington Post: The Obama administration announced Wednesday that it will not allow offshore oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico or off the Atlantic Coast through 2017, reversing two key policy changes the president embraced in late March.
The revised Interior Department drilling plan, which took industry officials and many environmentalists by surprise, will also delay the next two lease sales in the central and western Gulf of Mexico. It marks a sharp political shift by the White House – yanking concessions to conservatives and oil companies – in the wake of the massive BP oil spill and the collapse of comprehensive climate legislation.
A plus for a change.
From Think Progress: The Republican National Committee will soon hold elections to potentially replace its gaffe-prone chairman Michael Steele, and today, FreedomWorks held a forum for those vying for the job. All the candidates present — Steele was conspicuously absent — touted their fundraising ability, but Mike Duncan, a former chairman running for another term, took the opportunity to wax poetic about campaign finance. Despite the recent troubling and unprecedented explosion of money in politics, Duncan called money “the mother’s milk of politics,” and argued, “there is not enough money” in politics.
I’m appalled, but not surprised.
Cartoon:
Did the dog food commission puke up a furr ball or what>
6 Responses to “Open Thread – 12/2/2010”
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4:06 You’re just too good at some of these. I have trouble breaking 4 minutes, let alone getting close to 3 minutes flat.
Thanks, Jerry. Remember that I’ve been doing these almost daily for several years.
A thought keeps coming back to me that I don’t like to consider, but it answers a lot of questions, so I pose this to you. Is it possible that we have all been well and truly had?
My premise is this: Obama is not a democrat, liberal or progressive. He is a Trojan Horse. How else to explain his craven capitulation to the Republicans at every turn? We expended a tremendous amount of time, energy and resources to get this man elected. In return, we (the liberals, progressives, Democrats, et al) expected that he would champion the causes we thought he stood for; the ones we stand for. This has not happened. Instead, we see him and his administration giving the Republicans pretty much everything they want. Harry Reid isn’t the only one who humps Republican legs.
John, I do think it’s possible, but only time will tell if it is likely. I knew Obama was a centrist when I voted for him. He never claimed to be anything else. ‘Obama the progressive’ was the creation of people who painted him in the image of who they wanted him to be. Some of the problem is that the center keeps moving to the right, and instead of standing fast, he moves with it. A bigger part of the problem is that he campaigned on a specific group of policies. Subsequently he has caved-in on many of them. I’m not between his ears, so I cannot fairly judge the motivation behind this. Therefore I am not prepared to say that he is doing so by design.
John is on to something. The Big O is not a Republican, he is a corporatist Democrat. Almost the same thing. The Democratic wing minority of the Democratic Party is marginalized. The party needs to be purged of corporatists.
Dave, see my reply to John, please. If a Democrat goose-steps with the Reich, all support for them should be withdrawn, unless they remain tolerable only by virtue of the fact they are running against someone far worse. At present, I’m inclined to support a primary challenge to Obama, given the right candidate. But if he wins the primary, I see no alternative to supporting him against a ticket like Palin/Angle.