Friday Open Thread
It’s Friday of one of the strangest work weeks I’ve ever had. Two snowstorms in one week with two driving bans. It’s hard to say TGIF since I only had to go to work 3 days this week. Today’s open thread is a video-rich open thread. Enjoy!
Both Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart take on Fox News and their contention that the recent snowstorms means global warming is a hoax.
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| We’re Off to See the Blizzard | ||||
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| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Unusually Large Snowstorm | ||||
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Rachel Maddow and Bill Nye the Science Guy explain the link between global warming and the recent snowstorms:
Tags: Open Thread
Newsweek reads Jenny Sanford’s book so we don’t have to:
Faux News suggests that under health care reform, Clinton wouldn’t have gotten stents. I guess Faux prefers the privatized death panels.
This is interesting — the Internet Bus calms down rowdy students. Apparently they get involved with their laptops rather than yell and scream at each other.
Horrible news. An Olympic luge competitor from the country of Georgia has died after a crash on a training run.
Apparently the track is the most difficult luge course in the world and the luger was fairly inexperienced.
Just chillin’…
“Attorney General Eric Holder is leaving open the possibility of trying professed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed before a military commission instead of the civilian trial originally planned for New York City,” the Associated Press reports
rather than gloat I’ll simply say “about F’n time”
What? Someone goes close to 100 mph on a sled, crashes and dies? That’s real surprising. Now, if someone died curling then I’d be shocked.
Blossom Dearie, the singer on most of the School Houserock episodes died on the 7th. I really loved those songs.
Blossom Dearie died last year on 2/7. For a BlossomFest, listen here:
http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/30367
Does anyone else think that Obama is just going to ride his 55% to re-election while the DemocratIc party burns? I’m getting that impression from Gibbs.
@Jason — I’ve talked about this with other people because I wonder at what point does the chasm between how people feel about Congress and how people view him start to drag him down. And it isn’t as though Dems in Congress (as a group) are doing themselves many favors.
So if the Dems in Congress have decided on a suicide pact, why should Obama be a part of it? Although I do think that a new DNC Chair would be a good step. The DNC doesn’t control Congress, of course, but I don’t think that Howard Dean would have let the DNC spend money on Ben Nelson defending his own obstructionism.
Does anyone else think that Obama is just going to ride his 55% to re-election while the DemocratIc party burns?
He may not have a choice, like Clinton in 1994. The blue dogs have painted Dems into a corner.
I do think if Obama put serious muscle into enacting some real progressive legislation, everybody would win (except the GOP) – Dems, Obama, and the nation.
But even if the legislation doesn’t happen and Dems lose Congress, we are still better served by having a Democratic executive, simply because of the veto power and the court appointments.
Yeah. When does the White House line that it is Congress start to backfire on them?
Clinton got a lot done before he lost Congress, even despite losing HCR. Dem legislation set the stage for the good times in the 1990s. FMLA, Direct Student Loans, Americorps, not to mention the main economic plan were all put in place in 1993.
By that standard, Obama needs to get a greater sense of urgency about getting the important stuff done NOW.
Retaining the presidency in 1996 was the reason we didn’t have the Bush tax cuts in 1997.
If Obama loses to a Republican in 2012, in the media narrative he will become the patsy for the next 20 years of economic failure.
It isn’t Congress, it is Obomba who is leading the Dem suicide parade.
And Mr. Fact-Free emerges.
Republicans have taken partisanship to extremes I’ve never seen. Democrats have adopted an every man for himself strategy that spells disaster. Nobody’s burning them but themselves. Obama should increase the urgency of his message, but I doubt it will have any effect on the Blue Dogs.
As far as When does the White House line that it is Congress start to backfire on them? I’m not sure that it does backfire. Obama has remained pretty popular. Congress would be wise to pass something. They need a talking point besides the Republicans are being mean to us. Right now, all they have is whining. And you’d think for a bunch of obsessive poll watchers they’d be able to read the writing on the wall. Doing nothing is not the answer. And if they doubt that… they should ask themselves how doing nothing is working out for them.
And that’s the real problem. They refuse to do anything. And while I understand the consequences of an R controlled congress, I’ll have a hard time shedding a tear over a D defeat.
John Oliver scholes Republcan dumbasses. This daily show clip is amazing. Stay with it to the very end.
http://www.oliverwillis.com/2010/02/12/daily-shows-john-oliver-explains-hawaiis-health-care-mandate-to-republicans/
Someone told me the City of Wilmington took Friday as a snow day. Can this be so?
Pew: Anti-Incumbent Mood Rivals 1994, 2006
The Wall Street Journal ^ | 02-12-10 | Susan Davis
America’s current anti-incumbent mood rivals levels in 1994 and 2006, the previous two wave election years in which the majority party was swept out of power, according to the latest Pew Research Center survey out today on the midterm election climate. Asked if they would like to see their congressman re-elected, just 49% said “yes” while 31% said “no.” The 31% who currently say they do not want their incumbent reelected is well above the 23% average in the previous 29 Pew surveys. These numbers mirror an October 1994 Pew survey—taken just weeks before Republicans swept Democrats out of power
Horrible news for Michael Newbold Castle.
JM, the City did take Friday as a snow day. But they also opened the Treasurer’s office from 10 til 2 to let people without direct deposit pick up their paychecks.
So people who work for the County in the same building came to work and people in the City got a snow day, altho the Treasurer’s office could open.
Lots of people do not get this.
49 states dusted with snow; Hawaii’s the holdout
Yahoo/AP ^ | 2-13-10 | SETH BORENSTEIN
Forget red and blue — color America white. There was snow on the ground in 49 states Friday. Hawaii was the holdout. It was the United States of Snow, thanks to an unusual combination of weather patterns that dusted the U.S., including the skyscrapers of Dallas, the peach trees of Atlanta and the Florida Panhandle, where hurricanes are more common than snowflakes. More than two-thirds of the nation’s land mass had snow on the ground when the day dawned yesterday, and then it snowed ever so slightly in Florida to make it 49 states out of 50.
Exactly my feelings, Cassandra. One reason we live in the City is so we can get to pretty much anywhere we need. I can understand a rural school district calling things off, but it bespeaks a bit of laziness [and a sense of undeserved entitlement] for the City to blow off Friday, and creating a six-day “vacation” for itself.