Weekend Open Thread
Welcome to the weekend edition of your open thread. You’ll have to entertain yourselves today, my brother is visiting from Tennessee. We went to run a 10 K in Kennett Square. I did manage to finish, so yay me! Free Radical is now in favor of mountain top removal after the race because in his words “hills are assholes.”
Americans want Democrats to control Congress after this fall’s elections, a shift from April, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll released Saturday. But the margin is thin and there’s a flashing yellow light for incumbents of both parties: Only about a third want their own lawmakers re-elected.
The tenuous 45 percent to 40 percent preference for a Democratic Congress reverses the finding a month ago on the same question: 44 percent for Republicans and 41 percent for Democrats. The new readout came as the economy continued showing signs of improvement and the tumultuous battle over the health care law that President Barack Obama finally signed in March faded into the background.
I hope this change is because of the improving economy and the actions of Congress rather than a statistical aberration. Only time will tell if this is real.
It’s a shame to put this in an open thread because it really deserves its own post:
If the economy produces jobs over the next eight months at the same pace as it did over the past four months, the nation will have created more jobs in 2010 alone than it did over the entire eight years of George W. Bush’s presidency.
I hear the sweet, sweet sounds of wingnut heads exploding.
First, the numbers: From February 2001, Bush’s first full month in office, through January 2009, his last, total U.S. nonfarm employment grew from 132.5 million to 133.5 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s an increase, obviously, of just 1 million. From January through April of this year, the economy created 573,000 jobs. Over a full year, that projects to 1.72 million jobs. Job-creation numbers are notoriously volatile, so the actual result could run above or below that estimate. But Obama administration economists are increasingly optimistic that job growth this year will exceed expectations. Few of them will be surprised if more jobs are created in 2010 than over Bush’s two terms.
Democrats have saved the economy.
Tags: Open Thread
Despite the rightwing rhetoric, Arizona has not seen an increase in crime.
Don’t think the folks in Arizona see it that way…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLgZ1LWLlko
Obomba’s HCR bill is leading to fewer health care choices for women:
Remember those “insurance exchanges?” States have the right to ban them from providing abortion coverage. Lovely.
“Abortion opponents fought passage of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul to the bitter end, and now that it’s the law, they’re using it to limit coverage by private insurers.
An obscure part of the law allows states to restrict abortion coverage by private plans operating in new insurance markets. Capitalizing on that language, abortion foes have succeeded in passing bans that, in some cases, go beyond federal statutes.”
HCR 2010 = WMD 2002 Obomba lied while real HCR died.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100516/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_overhaul_abortion
HCR of no HCR, should the need arise, the likes of bu$h & Obomba know their kids will have access to such services.
hmm. guess the solution is to be elected to congress or the presidency. Thanks for the insight, Delcrat.
The wealthy have always had access to abortion services -legal or not and safe or not.
wRong Williams alert: he is misinformed as usual. Did he bother to check any sources beyond Lee Ann Walling?
The merit position violation case against her is far from over and done with.
[discussed here – http://delawareliberal.net//2008/11/19/any-ruth-ann-burrowing-abuse-stories-out-there/%5D
The case review may have cleared Markell’s OMB but it’s hardly over as Williams reported today.
The case of the Minner-crony-appointee-turns-into-merit-hire for a custom-made job for Walling in DNREC will still have a public hearing before the Merit Employee Relations Board sometime later this year.
That will be the first time the case will have an actually independent review. Should be interesting. It is not a good sign that Markell is giving the crony system cover. Word is that there were testimonies (Esposito for one) by a few people that have been excized from the official OMB report. Probably the report that was handed to Williams as the basis for his false story this morning. tsk tsk.
What a surprise. Another politician who employs cronies. He’ll get away with it just like the corrupt insurance commissioner did. Getting all worked up about it is a waste of time in Delaware.
“The wealthy have always had access to abortion services -legal or not and safe or not.”
Shh. This is the ugly truth the anti-abortion crowd doesn’t want you to know — abortion has always been available. But when it was illegal it was a lot more expensive to find a doctor who would do it, and women who weren’t connected or rich enough found less expensive, less safe ways.
Conservatives preferred those days not because there were no abortions but because there was lots more pain and shame to go around — and nothing floats a conservative’s boat like someone else’s shame.