Wednesday Open Thread
A science-y version of your open thread today.
Swine flu, yikes! We are already close to the number of cases as we normally have during the peak of flu season and we haven’t even entered the official flu season yet. (The red line is the current flu season and 98% of cases are H1N1 right now.)
Tags: Open Thread
Nice chart.
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.
I expect some fun youtube clips from this:
Mr Gaddafi has thrown the UN session into disarray. He has now been speaking for 100-odd minutes and seems just to be warming up. He was supposed to speak only 15 minutes. Some UN journalists are now betting he will run on for a Fidel Castro-like seven hours. Of course, the General Assembly president has not got the heart to stop him. Perhaps because the General Assembly president is Ali Treki, a former Libyan foreign minister under Mr Gaddafi.
Was anyone at Russ Peterson’s address last night before the Delaware Historical Society? I understand he laid it out regarding who helped enact, who tried to stop and who tried to undermine the Coastal Zone Act. I hear that Tribbitt and du Pont were in the latter category. Would like to hear details.
Ah, Gaddafi, Bush’s pal. I can’t wait to see how Fox blames this on Obama.
Democrats nix putting pre-vote health bill online
google ^ | 9/23/09 | ap
WASHINGTON — Senate Finance Committee Democrats have rejected a GOP amendment that would have required a health overhaul bill to be available online for 72 hours before the committee votes. Republicans argued that transparency is an Obama administration goal. They also noted that their constituents are demanding that they read bills before voting. Democrats said it was a delay tactic that could have postponed a vote for weeks.
And the reason repubs want 72 hours is not to make sure they get to read it, but to make sure that the insurance lobbyists have a chance to read it. This is according to Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS):
Yeah, I’ve been reading crazy stuff about Ghaddafi’s speech all morning. Ghaddafi is Bush’s buddy. Plus, McCain just visited Ghaddafi this year as well.
Let’s see – Democratic diplomacy has freed the journalists in North Korea (Bill Clinton) and veterans in Myanmar (Webb). Bush/McCain have given us a Ghaddafi speech at the U.N.
Sen. Jim Bunning fell asleep during the hearings today.
For additional points, note Milbank’s take on this — that Bucus spent alot of time working for a bipartisan bill to have the repubs quite reject the effort. Which is quite right, but am hoping that this is the signal that this is the media narrative that gets settled on.
Here’s an account of Ghaddafi’s speech, which lasted 90 minutes.
The guy is a complete nut.
But he is a nut with oil.
That is almost redundant.
Not all nuts have oil, but everyone with oil seems to be nuts.
Burmese Military Junta Leader Visits White House While Honduran President’s US Visa Revoked…
I’m not sure what this means but a story just came out about a census worker found murdered in Kentucky. He was hanged in a cemetery and the word FED was written on his chest. The murder occurred on 9/12.
Link
Since Palin is on foreign soil criticizing the President, will Clear Channel radio stations blacklist her, as they did the Dixie Chicks?
That depends — do their listeners want to hear Sarah Palin or not.
Their listeners did not want to hear the Dixie Chicks — as is witnessed by the drastic decline in their CD sales that coincided with Natalie’s comments. When they did have some small amount of success later, the sales trends indicated that it was with an entirely different audience attracted by the political message of a single album — success that has not been followed with any sort of similar success.
And I say that as someone who urged that our local country music stations (both Clear Channel and non-Clear Channel) bring their music back.
Of course, your premise is that all criticism is equal. Palin made a speech on policy that was critical of policy. The comments that got the band in trouble were personally insulting towards the president. And by the way — under the standard put forth by you liberals when the entire DC controversy erupted, shouldn’t you be declaring Sarah Palin to be a patriot of the highest sort for her dissent?
A decision in a single office silenced the Dixie Chicks on 1,200 radio stations – even through Grammys and sellouts.
BTW, Palin can say whatever stupid things she wishes, in Hong Kong or Mekong, but don’t you love how the GOP has suddenly begun to defend heterodoxical voices? When Al Gore stood up courageously against the mendacious march to War in Iraq, this is what one heard from the Right:
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/michael/kelly092502.asp
some small amount of success later
Taking the Long Way took a gold record in its first week and debuted at #1 on both the country and pop charts. Like their two records before that.
Not exactly small, especially if one of your traditional venues petulantly no longer plays your songs.
However, nothing since then. And if one looks at the change in who purchased them before and who did after, you will discover a drastic change. Not only that, TTLW was their first album in over three years after generally producing a steady album a year prior to the controversy — and has had no follow-up as of three years later. For that matter, they couldn’t sell tickets for the supporting tour in large parts of the country where they had been incredibly popular before, and haven’t toured since. Perhaps most interestingly, they could not win awards from either the CMA or ACM with TTLW despite their Grammy wins — indicative, perhaps, that the success with those awards was more a political statement by the music industry outside of Nashville than a reflection on the merit of the music.
Oh, and I love that “1200 stations” comment — most of those stations were not formatted for country music, and so would have been unlikely to be playing the Dixie Chicks in any event.
Qadaffi calls Obama “my son”… does that mean BHO is a Libyan and not a Kenyan?
but then he said: “We are happy that a young African Kenyan was voted for and made president.”
it’s all very confusing