Thursday Open Thread
It’s open thread time – time to talk about whatever you like. Feel free to drop links in the comments or just comment on the weather. Nothing is off-topic!
Here’s something to talk about, Joe Biden talked to Jon Stewart on Tuesday.
Part 1
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Joe Biden Pt. 1 | ||||
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Part 2
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Joe Biden Pt. 2 | ||||
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Sarah Palin and “death panels:”
The former half-term governor was asked by ABC News about her use of the phrase “death panels,” which is generally considered one of the more ridiculous lies of the health care debate. In response, Palin told Barbara Walters that she wasn’t being literal, and compared her choice of phrases to Reagan referring to the Soviet Union as the “evil empire.”
“It’s kind like what Reagan used to do, though, when he talked about, say, the ‘evil empire.’ You’re never going to find the evil empire on a map of the world.
“And yet [Reagan] talked about that, in terms that people could understand — kind of rationing down, not complicating the issue. But he, with the issue of the evil empire at the time, used those two words to get people to shake up, wake up, find out what’s going on here. Now, had he been criticized and, and mocked, and, and condemned for ever using a term that wasn’t actually there on a map, or in documents, we probably would never have succeeded in, in crushing the evil empire, and winning that.”
Specifically on the notion of “death panels,” Palin added that President Obama is “not lying” because “those two words will not be found in any of those thousands of pages of different variations of the health care bill,” but she nevertheless thinks the president is being “disingenuous” because there will be “bureaucrats” who “will be able to call the shots, based on somebody’s subjective judgment of productivity, of somebody’s life, who will receive the health care that needs to be rationed, and who will not.”
I can’t really make hide nor hair of that explanation except that Sarah Palin doesn’t know what she’s talking about.
Tags: Open Thread
The Gettysburg Address
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
November 19, 1863
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Fox News got caught again overestimating crowd sizes, this time with Palin’s book signings.
Fox responded when contacted:
They just don’t know how they keep ending up with the wrong crowd footage and estimates. I blame ACORN.
what the hell point are you trying to make with that? that you want civil war? Lincoln stood for everything you and your people are calling satanic or socialist. If you want to make a point for fighting for your hard right religious government, quote someone who advocates for that. Like KSM or Osama. what a piece of trash.
and since you provided no link, i can only assume this “address” never happened and you make it all up
sorry UI, that was for lizard, not you. yeah this is the second time in a month Fixed News has actually fixed the news… well the second time in a month it has been so apparent they had to admit it ad do the conservunist trick of blaming someone else.
Thanks for reminding me lizard! What a nice thing to reflect on today.
(even though I’m sure we both get totally different things out of it, it’s nice to appreciate a little history)
Orrin Hatch today said this today about the fight over the health care bill: “It’s going to be a holy war.”
Does this mean that Hatch is in Al Qaeda? Bauchmann was right: there ARE anti-Americans in the Senate!!!
I’ll bet you’re not surprised to learn that Sarah Palin seems confused on the difference between Iraq and Iran.
Palin/Beck 2012!
BREAKING: Rudy Giuliani to run for U.S. Senate
New York Daily News ^ | November 19, 2009 | Kenneth Lovett
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani has decided not to run for governor next year – but will run for U.S. Senate instead, sources told the Daily News. A source familiar with Giuliani’s thinking said the failed presidential candidate has been telling people he plans to run against Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in 2010 to fill out the remaining two years of Hillary Clinton’s term. If elected, the source said, he could use that as a stepping stone to run for President in 2012 – rather than run for re-election to the Senate. A Giuliani spokeswoman downplayed the reports.
UI, I don’t want to excuse poor reporting, but sometimes a mistake is just a mistake…
CBC airs anti-Sarah Palin book cover – Broadcaster uses wrong graphic for book image (Canada)
Hollywood Reporter ^ | Nov 18, 2009, 10:25 AM ET | Etan Vlessing
TORONTO — That pesky liberal anti-Sarah Palin media conspiracy is spreading. The former Alaska governor and U.S. vice presidential candidate is complaining over Newsweek’s choice for a magazine cover shot. Now it turns out the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.’s flagship newscast “The National” put the wrong Palin book cover image on air Monday night as it introduced an item for her current “Going Rogue” book tour. Rather than display the cover for “Going Rogue: An American Life,” Palin’s memoir, “National” viewers saw the graphic for the anti-Palin essay collection “Going Rouge: Sarah Palin, an American Nightmare,”
Wow, Gecko. What a scoop on Rudy. Seems that Daily Planet is the only one reporting that Rudy is running for the Senate. NY Times writes that he’s not running for anything and that he’s only been urged to run for Senate. The Times is also reporting that there seems to be a problem between him and Edward Cox-Nixon, the chair of the GOP in New York.
Rudy is a serious threat to the senate seat and a prime example of why the Senate seat should have gone to Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (the GOP cannot win NY without Long Island) or Rep. Nita Lowey (who would run up the margins in Westchester/Rockland). Gillibrand lacks a downstate profile, which allows Rudy to soak up votes in the NYC suburbs. And that’s where the election is won or lost.
Rudy dropped the gov bid because Andrew Cuomo would wipe the floor with him. But keep in mind, Rudy does not want to be a Senator, he wants to be an executive. A senate seat only holds value to Rudy as a stepping stone – legislation is wholly outside his interest.
Valero to close Del. refinery
(good job Mr. VP, evil energy co. gets its just deserts)
Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | 11/20/2009 | staff
Valero Energy Corp., the largest U.S. refiner, announced today that it will permanently close its Delaware City, Del., plant because of losses brought on by the poor economy. The shutdown is expected to affect about 550 employees. “A safe and orderly shutdown of the refinery will commence immediately,” the San Antonio, Texas-based company said today in a statement, adding that employees were told today of the move. The company said it expects to save $450 million in operating expenses next year by shutting the refinery.
good. maybe this will get Harris to stop standing in the way of wind power in delaware. I’m sure they had 550 employees waiting to work for a company that doesn’t destroy the environment where they live…. assuming this story is true. no link.
i’m sad they’re closing the refinery, but only because that means Del. City Day won’t have the RIDICULOUS fireworks display it usually has any more. Valero just pays Del city residents for all the cancer they’re giving them with fireworks.